CPI(M) terms PM package as a ‘crude joke’

CPI(M) today said that the Rs 80,000 crore financial package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the details given by J&K Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed was a “crude joke” as the “paltry amount” has nothing substantial to offer to the flood-hit people.

The party also batted strongly for the grant of IIT and IIM for Kashmir on the pattern of Jammu.

“The establishment of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) should have been also sanctioned for Kashmir as well for a fair and equitable development”, CPI(M) leader and MLA, M Y Tarigami told reporters here today.

“Depriving valley from these institutions is bound to create deeper dissatisfaction among the people”, he said.

If Government of India (GoI) can grant two Central Universities and also two AIIMS for Kashmir and Jammu regions, why not two IITs, IIMs and IIMCs for Kashmir and Jammu regions.

“We welcome grant of AIIMS and central University to Jammu, which is its right, but why Kashmir has to be deprived of three premier institutes of IIT, IIM and IIMC,” Tarigami said.

“The financial package announced by the Prime Minister and details given by J&K CM reveal that this package has nothing substantial to offer to the flood-hit people and traders and the hype given to the paltry amount meant for flood relief is a crude and cruel joke with the devastated families and the business establishment”, he said.

“Most of the flood affected people genuinely complain that they have either received no relief amount from the government for their rehabilitation or have received peanuts only”, he said.

“Over a year after the floods, the Union government has announced the financial package but the relief amount of Rs 2,000 crores have left flood victims dismayed,” he added.

He said that it is simply a crude joke on the part of the Government of India and the state government which is giving an unwarranted hype to these peanuts.