FM Nirmala Sitharaman Hints Restoration Of Jammu & Kashmir’s Statehood

Nirmala Sitharaman was delivering a lecture on 'Cooperative Federalism: The Path Towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat' in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday hinted towards a possibility that Union government was looking to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. She dropped the hint while delivering a lecture on "Cooperative Federalism: The Path Towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat" organised by Bharatiya Vichara Kendram in memory of Sangh idealogue P Parameshwaran in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

“PM Modi fully accepted the Finance Commission (report) and that is why today states get 42% of the amount (tax collected), now reduced by 41% because J&K is no longer a state. It will soon become, maybe some time,” she said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

She was talking about the distribution of funds to the states by the Centre as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.

Sitharaman mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, without any hesitation, had accepted the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission in 2014-15 that 42 per cent of all taxes, an increase from 32 per cent till then, should be given to the states.

She said, “That Finance Commission said now you raise it to 42 per cent...which means that the Centre will have a lesser amount in its hand. Prime Minister Modi, without a second thought about it, fully accepted the Finance Commission recommendation.”

On the issue of spending taxpayers’ money, the Finance Minister added, "The money you pay for tax is as worthy for me as the money in my own pocket. I have to utilise it to the maximum for the common cause. There's no way the money is getting spent on anything else except definitely for the common cause. So in this, even as a move, the last one of the slogans: Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas."

The Narendra Modi-led Central government had abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The move bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.

(With Agency Inputs)