Jammu artisans allege bias in fund utilisation

Vikram Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, December 9

Artisans and weavers of the Jammu region have accused the state authorities of distributing and utilising funds from the Centre solely for the benefit of Kashmir.

Members of the Jammu Artisans’ and Weavers’ Association said the Centre had released funds to the tune of Rs 3 crore each for establishing two urban ‘haats’ — one in Jammu and the other in Kashmir.

The financial ceiling per ‘haat’ was on the pattern of 70:30 share from the Centre and state, respectively.

“The state released money earmarked for Kashmir and got a urban ‘haat’ established at Sonamarg, but no initiative was taken for Jammu,” said convener of the association Balkrishan Koul.

He also alleged that Weavers Service Centre was established in the Valley only, where Jammu weavers were not entertained for any query.

“At the recent ‘Delhi Haat’, hundreds of stalls from all over the country were installed, including some from the Valley. Jammu weavers and artisans were not even notified,” he alleged.

State Handloom Corporation MD Rakesh Sharma said only those schemes that came from the directorate of industries were executed by the corporation. “We have not received any notification from the directorate for constructing a ‘haat’ in Jammu. We only execute the projects forwarded to us from the directorate,” said Sharma.

Assistant director of the Weavers Service Centre Tahir Hakim said while the money released for ‘Kashmir Haat’ was utilised in raising infrastructure, ‘Jammu Haat’ got stuck in red tape.