PM Narendra Modi's 80,000 crore Jammu & Kashmir package above plan, non-plan assistance: Haseeb Drabu

SRINAGAR: The Centre's Rs 80,000-crore package announced today is over and above the normal plan and non-plan assistance to the state as well as the Rs 35,000 crore to be spent on the highway, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu said.

"The package is over and above the normal plan and non-plan assistance that accrues to the state. It is over and above the Rs 35,000 crores to be spend on the highway," Drabu told soon after the Prime Minister announced the package at a public rally here.

Drabu said the package was an aggregate macro-economic and infrastructure rebuilding plan for the state.

"I call it TAMEIR plan -- The Aggregate Macro-Economic and Infrastructure Rebuilding plan which will be used in the key sectors of the state," he said.

The Finance Minister said the package has five components including humanitarian relief, disaster management, social infrastructure, economic infrastructure and developmental spending.

Opposition Congress criticised the Prime Minister's package, stating that it lacked clarity and that some of the projects included in the package like the national highway were either completed or near completion.

Drabu said while Rs 60,000 crore in the package have been earmarked for new infrastructure projects in the state sector, around Rs 7,000 crore have been earmarked for the ongoing projects.

The minister noted that Rs 8,000 crore have been earmarked for humanitarian relief including rehabilitation of the flood-affected.

Drabu said the economic package announced by the Prime Minister is to be spent over next five years and it would not only rejuvenate the flood-hit state economy but create huge job opportunities as well.