Jammu, Mar 11: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that he remembers all the promises made by him with the people of J&K and is committed to fulfilling them.
Winding up the discussion on the budget 2025, CM Omar, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said he never pledged that he would fulfill all the commitments made by him in one budget.
“We are being repeatedly reminded (by opposition) what promises we have made with the people. We know what commitments we have made. We are committed to fulfilling them but we have never said that we will implement them in one budget,” he said.
He said that his budget was realistic and not pessimistic. “My budget speech was realistic and not pessimistic. Is it not a reality that we don’t have resources to meet our demands? We don’t have budgetary provisions to even provide 24-hour electricity, so we have to resort to cuts. There is a proverb in English, ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’. We did the same in the budget,” CM Omar said.
He said that his budget wouldn’t have an inflationary impact on the people. “We ensured that social welfare measures proposed by us in the budget shouldn’t have an inflationary effect on the people. Sajad Sahab asked whether the budget would have a massive inflationary effect on the people. I want to say that this budget would have minimal inflationary impact, possibly no effect at all,” he said.
The CM announced the constitution of a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to work out a roadmap for addressing issues of daily-wagers.
“I am announcing a committee to work out a framework for daily-wagers. The committee will work out the exact number of daily-wagers and look into legal and financial concerns within six months so that we can do something in the next budget,” he said.
CM Omar said the committee will comprise additional chief secretary in Chief Minister’s Office and administrative secretaries of General Administration, Finance and Law departments.
He also lashed out at previous PDP-BJP government for failing to address issues of daily-wagers, saying that only 570 daily-wagers were regularised under SRO-522 issued by them in December 2017.
“You shut the door of their regularisation two years ago by cancelling it,” he said.
CM Omar also said that his every action is described by the opposition as a love letter.
“I am owning this love letter. It is a love letter to BJP, PC, PDP, NC, Congress and independents. It is a love letter to the people of Jammu & Kashmir,” he said, adding that he would continue to write the same love letters to the people of J&K for the next five years.
CM Omar said there is no wrong in expressing gratitude to the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister for their support to the people of J&K.
“Why should I be embarrassed to express gratitude to the PM, HM and FM if they would support the people of J&K?”he asked—(KNO)
