Mufti govt completes 100 days; says 'controversial' issues

Completing 100 days in power, the Jammu and Kashmir government today admitted that "some controversial issues" had "impacted" its governance but claimed that it had addressed all the issues successfully.
"The 100 days of our rule was setting the stage right for ensuring good governance. There were some controversial issues which impacted the governance, but we resolved all the issues and these 100 days, I can firmly say, was successful," Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said here at a conference on the completion of 100 days of PDP-BJP government.
He did not elaborate on the "controversial issues" but the state has lately seen increase in separatist activities and repeated incidents of Pakistani flags being hoisted, for which the government has come under attack.

Singh, who belongs to BJP and hails from Jammu, highlighted the work done by his government and attacked the previous National Conference dispensation of Omar Abdullah, saying it had left behind a "mess".
"We have got this mess. And we have honestly tried to correct this mess," he said, adding "We have started setting this platform for good governance".
He alleged that the previous government had created a mess with the budget and "now we are trying to correct it".

Claiming that the state has no money, Singh said, "It is June now, but our treasuries are empty." He said that next year, in January, "we expect the funds to come from the Centre as the talks are on."

Castigating the previous Omar Abdullah government, he said, "The utilization certificates, which had been sought by the central government, have not been given so far - in MGNREGA, SSA (Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan) and other sectors".
"In SSA, salaries have not been given for last 8-9 months, they have created mess. Same is the case with Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) as no provision has been made for the future," he said.
The Deputy CM said the previous government created administrative units but did not keep provisions of funds for them. New schools were declared but no funds were kept for them.
On the coming together of PDP and BJP, he said, "It was after a well thought out decision" by the central BJP leadership led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form the government after two-month-long dialogue with PDP.

"It was not a coalition of ideologies but coalition based on a common agenda of development," he said.