Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that she has spoken to Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley regarding the move to declare the region’s bank as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and said that Jaitley had ‘assured’ that the government of India would reexamine the matter.
She took to Twitter to share the news:
Spoke with @arunjaitley ji about the intrusive and regressive move to declare J&K Bank as a PSU. This decision will add to the woes of the state and alienate them further. The FinMin assured that the government will reexamine the matter.
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 28, 2018
The development comes after Mehbooba had earlier called for an immediate roll back of the decision taken by State Administrative Council to treat the J&K Bank Ltd as a public-sector bank.
In a statement, she had said that the Governor administration is taking such decisions which “smack of attempts to fiddle with the basic characters of the state’s special status.”
Top constitutional experts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday had said that Jammu and Kashmir Bank after its declaration as a public sector bank was now fully under the administrative and financial control of the Jammu and Kashmir government and the authority of the bank chairman had been reduced to the extent of the managing director of a public sector corporation. However they said that a popular government if put in place had the powers to roll back such orders by a simple cabinet decision.
Leading constitutional expert and senior advocate at Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Zaffar Ahmad Shah had said, “The Jammu and Kashmir Bank after its declaration as a public sector bank by Governor Satya Pal Malik has now come under the complete administrative and financial control of the government. The chairman of the bank is now like a managing director of any public sector corporation of the state government and the government has now the power and authority to nominate members for the board of directors, the highest decision making body of the bank.”
Retired High Court Judge Justice Hasnain Masoodi on Saturday had said that extension of RTI to J&K Bank would end obstructionism and repression and promote transparency in the top financial institution of the state.
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Masoodi had said, “Till now we had no right to know anything about the working of the bank but with Government bringing Jammu and Kashmir Bank within the ambit of RTI, the people now have a right to know about the non performing accounts through which defaulters have taken one thousand crores and with the application of RTI obstructionism and repression will end in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.”
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