Jammu, Aug 12: With the peak working season already nearing end in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government is yet to receive from the centre first installment of Rs 1050 crore of the annual plan outlay of Rs 7300 for the current fiscal.
 Authoritative sources told Greater Kashmir that the process for the release of funds was yet to take off - almost a month after the annual plan was approved by the Planning Commission of India. The first installment under the plan head was expected to be released in the first week of August.
 Planning Commission had on July 13 approved Rs 7300 crore annual plan for Jammu and Kashmir for 2012-13, with a step up of 10 percent over the outlay in the last fiscal.
 The plan outlay was finalised after a meeting between the Commission’s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at New Delhi.
 Out of the total plan outlay of Rs 7300 crore, around Rs 4200 crore is to be allocated to the state through direct devolution from the centre. The amount is to be paid to the state in four equal installments, sources said.
 “We are still waiting for the funds to be released”, they said adding, “As per our information the finance ministry has already received the allocation from the Planning Commission of India but same could not be released to the state”.
 The change of guard in the Union Finance Ministry is said to be one of the reasons for the delay in the release of funds.
 There was instability in the Finance Ministry after Pranab Mukherjee quit on June 26 to contest presidential elections. P Chidambaram took over as new finance minister early this month.
 “We have made a fresh request to the ministry for the release of funds and expect it to be released soon”, officials in the state finance ministry claimed.
 The state, they said, in the meanwhile continues to manage the finances out of the non-plan sector putting additional burden on the state’s own resources. “We are managing the crises somehow out of own resources”, officials, preferring not to be named said adding, recently we received a collection of around Rs 200 crore in tax sector and same amount was utilized for clearing some pending liabilities.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST