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Tribune News Service
Srinagar, November 25
The Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), an amalgam of several traders’ bodies, on Sunday threatened an agitation against the government decision to turn J&K Bank into a public sector undertaking (PSU).
Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also flayed the move and termed it a ‘grand ploy to cripple the Kashmiris on political as well the economic front’.
“Other PSUs like the State Road Transport Corporation and the State Financial Corporation are only consuming money from taxpayers and are yet to give profits. Is the Governor planning to make it (J&K Bank) ineffective just like other PSUs? If the decision is not rolled back, we will launch an agitation,” KEA chairman Mohammad Yaseen Khan said while addressing a press conference here.
On Friday, the SAC meeting chaired by Governor Satya Pal Malik had decided to turn J&K Bank Ltd into a PSU.
Fearing that the decision to turn the bank into a PSU may turn it into a loss-making unit, Khan said J&K Bank had always come to the rescue of the local business community.
“Bringing the bank under the RTI ambit is welcome as accountability is must….but why the decision was taken suddenly after 80 years? The bank has given loans worth Rs 25,000 crore to the people of the state and it is our only listed company in the National Stock Exchange. Other nationalised banks working in the state do not even contribute 10 per cent of what J&K Bank does. The business community has been suffering after the 2014 floods…. Only J&K Bank came forward. If it becomes like J&K Industries and State Financial Corporation…who will take the responsibility?” he asked.
Addressing a ‘seerat’ conference here, Mirwaiz said: “They want to cripple us politically, socially and economically and now the Governor’s administration on the directions of the BJP-RSS combine is trying to capture J&K Bank. They know that how this institution, in which the Kashmiris have faith, has sustained our trade and economy.”
He warned that the people of Kashmir “can’t remain silent about the new ploy of the government” while urging them to “forge unity on the lines of the 2016 mass agitation to fight the move”.
Meanwhile, Khan said such steps were part of the conspiracy to fiddle with the special status of the state and these decisions were usually taken by an elected government.
“Such decisions are taken by elected governments…. On whose directions are you (Governor) doing this?... You are just a makeshift arrangement to ensure ‘sadak, bijli and paani’…the bank has reached heights because of our money….the interest paid by us,” he added.
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