Srinagar, Feb 6 (JKNS): Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Gani Lone on Friday criticised the latest Jammu and Kashmir budget, branding it yet another profound disappointment that fails to deliver meaningful change for the people of the Union Territory.
In a strongly worded statement as per news agency JKNS, Lone described the budget as completely devoid of any genuine political vision or input, remaining as bureaucratic and uninspired as ever.
He argued that a responsible budget should have emerged as a bold, comprehensive package, one that actively promotes inclusivity, targets high-potential sectors capable of lifting per capita income, generates substantial employment opportunities, supports rehabilitation efforts and seriously works toward narrowing widening income disparities. Instead, he charged, the document is strikingly empty of all such ambition and direction.
Lone highlighted several glaring omissions and broken promises that continue to burden ordinary citizens. The government has once again failed to deliver on the long-standing demand for 200 units of free electricity for households, offering nothing beyond yet another vague promise tied to a centrally sponsored scheme, just as it did the previous year.
“There is no concrete provision for the regularization of thousands of daily wagers who remain trapped in uncertainty, nor any proposal to establish fair minimum remuneration for critical frontline workers such as Anganwadi Workers (AWW), ASHAs, and MGNREGA staff,” he stated.
Furthermore, Lone pointed out that NC’s manifesto pledged to create new jobs that has been quietly sidelined, with the administration resorting to routine advertisements for gazetted and non-gazetted vacancies as a superficial cover.
“Even more troubling is the hidden reality that around 25,000 government positions have effectively been outsourced to private entities, opening the door to a fresh wave of exploitation and insecurity for workers while daily wagers already endure ongoing hardships,” Lone highlighted.
He said that promises from the previous year, such as 12 free LPG cylinders, have mysteriously shrunk and been restricted only to Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) beneficiaries, leaving the broader population without relief.
“Efforts to boost farmers’ income through crop diversification and a shift toward high-value horticulture remain largely superficial. It is likely to get lost in bureaucratic delays and empty rhetoric rather than translating into real transformation on the ground,” Lone warned.
He also highlighted that the affordable and dignified housing continues to elude the vast majority in cities and towns, with no innovative or meaningful steps introduced to address this core urban challenge.
“Small traders, shopkeepers, and transporters—the backbone of local economies—have been entirely overlooked, with no measures to ease doing business and instead a drift toward greater regulation that stifles enterprise,” he said.
Lone stated that the much-publicized tourism numbers are deliberately conflated with pilgrim footfall against genuine tourists by the administration. “The real story of non-pilgrim tourism,remains uncompiled or deliberately concealed,” he added.
Concluding his remarks, Sajad Lone declared that economically, this budget will prove as barren and ineffective as the last one.
“There is not even a pretense of ambition or effort to confront the real issues confronting the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Only more of the same bureaucratic inertia that has long frustrated progress and hope,” he added. (JKNS)
