Drabu-Rana-Sagar trialogue prompts Mir to ask Speaker 'what's going on?'

BIVEK MATHUR

JAMMU: Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu was under barrage of questions and rebuttals from Opposition Legislators Devinder Singh Rana and Ali Mohammad Sagar in the Legislative Assembly this afternoon when the former was replying to discussion on the budget.
After minutes-long disruption in the Finance Minister's reply caused by repeated questions of Sagar and Rana, PDP MLA Javed Mustafa Mir trouped to the Well of the House asking the Speaker 'what is going on?'
"What is this all going on? One person is saying something, while the other is issuing rebuttal and not allowing the FM complete his reply on the budget", Mir asked the Speaker. Terming Speaker as the guardian of the House, he sought his intervention to run the house smoothly.
Earlier, the National Conference members charged Finance Minister of issuing "misleading statements" on SARFAESI Act, Privatization of Lakhanpur Toll-Post among other issues.
Devinder Singh Rana and Ali Mohammad Sagar disrupted the speech of the FM as and when he (FM) allegedly issued some "misleading statements."
When Drabu said in the house that the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) of the finance department have not been read by "most of the legislators", Davender Rana stood from the chair and said, "I am sorry Drabu Sahab but I've read the ATRs more than four times and except you, no department has praised your actions." Ali Mohammad Sagar also said that he too read the ATRs.
Later, while speaking on the SARFAESI Act, when Drabu said that even former Chief Minister-Omar Abdullah wanted to bring the act, Rana said, "No doubt, but we wanted to bring the act through state legislation."
To this Drabu said, "No, it was not the case. You have even started the exercise to bring the act" and passed some remarks on the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah regarding the Act, which irked Rana to say, "Off course, we wanted to bring the act, but not like you that you didn't defend your stand in Supreme Court and let the apex court make the act applicable to J&K."
Later, to answer the jibes of opposition members over his previous budgets' promises of privatizing the Lakhanpur Toll-Post, Drabu said, "Yes, I remember what I said and I stand on my words but in the regime of GST, we aren't even sure whether there will be a toll-post at Lakhanpur or not."
To this, Rana said, "I told you about GST already in this house but since you were continuously issuing statements, I didn't stop you."
Replying Rana, Drabu said, "Aap To Antaryami Hain Rana Sahab (You are all-knowing Rana Sahab).
The NC legislator took strong exception of the jibe of FM and asked him, "You cannot mock the legislators to hide your weaknesses."
Opposition also cornered FM over KCC Loans, Regularization of employees among other issues leading to disruption of FM address.

No breach of J&K bank's autonomy

JAMMU: Stating that over Rs 500 crore given to the Jammu and Kashmir Bank was not a "bailout package" but a capital, the state government today said that there will be no breach of the autonomy of the bank.
"Whatever credibility I have in this House and elsewhere, I would like to assure you that there shall be no breach of the autonomy of the J&K Bank. The Rs 580 crore should not be seen as a bailout but a necessity, a capital has been provided (to the bank)," state Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu said while replying to the budget debate in the Legislative Assembly.
He said in the past five years the bank has given a dividend of Rs 502 crore to the state government and the government has now infused the capital in the bank as it was under stress.
"People talk about the bailout of the J&K Bank, about autonomy. The RBI has regulatory norm which govern the public or the private banks. If you go by the banking classification, then J&K Bank is a private bank, it is not a public sector bank. It's a private bank headed by the J&K government.
We are the only state government to have a bank , Drabu said.
He said the norm of RBI say that the bank should have a regulatory deposit of 13 per cent capital adequacy.
"In the last 4-5 years, NPAs were created which resulted in the decrease of the capital adequacy of J&K Bank and it could have happened that the RBI could stop the lending operations so it was necessary to infuse capital to the bank," the finance minister said.
He said the bank has accurate NPAs of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 crore which were created in the last one quarter.
"If we see the lending pattern in the country in the last year, the Government of India earmarked Rs 2.5 lakh crore for banks which included the State Bank of India. It is not unusual for governments to give money to the banks. I said in my speech that there was a governance failure, but I would like to say that banking is out of state legislature," he said.
He said the J&K Bank belongs to the state and as the Chairman of the bank for five years he was treated very well.
"I was given full autonomy to function, I worked under three governments and all three governments gave me enormous support," he said.