Work on shelters could hurt Mehbooba govt

Nirmal Singh, who is also the Urban Development Minister. However, reports said that work was going on and there is no order to stop work on these two projects officially.

According to government officials, Governor Vohra had given a deadline to the state authorities in January to complete the projects in Jammu and Kupwara within three months.

The project is being executed under National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM).

According to officials, these temporary shelter sheds would be given to the locals. However, non-locals can also avail of this facility.

It is in place to mention that the majority of homeless people in the Kashmir valley and even in Jammu region are non-locals, who have developed slums in Srinagar, Jammu and other districts of the state.

Separatists and civil society organisations in the past have already warned the government not to bring non- state subjects to the state as this might lead to a change in demography.

As the project is being executed in Kupwara and Jammu city, CM Mehbooba Mufti is finding it very difficult to justify these settlements amid growing protest from the opposition and the separatists. The demand to transfer power projects owned by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to Jammu and Kashmir has become stronger after the NHPC has revealed that from 2001-2015, it earned Rs 194 billion from the sale of power generated from different power projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The information was revealed in response to an RTI application filed by a Delhi-based NGO. At present, the state has to spend around Rs 3,000 crore on the purchase of power from NHPC and getting back the power projects would help the state’s