Editorial … . . . . . .
Politicians have been assuring us for years that a reassuring political consensus is forming in support of the state’s/UTs workable economic blueprint. However, not much has changed, and our UT has not moved past its overly reliant reliance on the Center, centrally supported schemes (CSS), and tax collection for its economic and budgetary needs. Politicians of all stripes will keep using rhetorical spin to claim that they are trying to develop an investment-based employment policy. Currently, it is challenging to understand the significance of such comments without being aware of the main features of their investment strategy. Regularly used buzzwords like “sustainable economy” and “investment-based employment policy” can seem exciting but are still just lofty ideals. The evaluation of the economic difficulties, including its high unemployment rate, is unknown. It is also unknown what magical solution the political parties hope to conjure up to address all of these problems. However, this looks to be a case of hollow words based only on the UT’s history of a wrecked economic structure and its growing reliance on central finances, which have increasingly become more of a political weapon to flaunt than to provide assistance to the people on the ground. First and foremost, we must be realistic and admit that our struggling economy has reached a high point. Any other method of putting it would be sheer mathematical juggling. The appearance of growth statisticians’ reports does not cause celebration because it does not necessarily predict productive growth, which is still lacking. In this case, the service sector, where the majority of our budget is concentrated to feed the sizable sector of government employees, principally accounts for the actual expenditures. Employment programmes are more deeply ingrained in an already overburdened government sector, while horticulture and industry—two crucial areas that may guarantee productive growth and provide employment—are completely under stress. In reality, the crucial agricultural sector has been neglected, which has not only resulted in low outputs but also helped fuel food inflation and hampered the ecosystem by converting substantial portions of agricultural land to commercial property. Despite its small size, the industrial sector of the economy continues to be hampered by ineffective delivery systems, administrative roadblocks, and the inability to connect industrial expansion to regional resources in the UT. The industry has been discouraged from achieving this goal, yet a strong industrial plan may provide employment as well as a sustainable economy. The industrial sector did not experience expansion; rather, the levels of unemployment increased.
The importance of other crucial areas that can create employment, where political, geographical, and topographical complexity must inspire unconventional thinking, is also lacking. By fostering markets and increasing exports, handicrafts are not finding their place in the competitive market. This industry, too, is largely fading and many craftspeople are being forced into a life of poverty rather than creating jobs. Tourism is still a viable way to grow our UT‘s economy, but it is still badly structured. While political unrest may reduce the number of visitors, other factors include poor infrastructure, the inability to promote some potential tourist destinations, and the failure to assure both horizontal and vertical tourist dispersion. It seems impossible to envision an innovative, transformational, and professionally prepared strategy that will provide the tourism industry with a much-needed boost. This important sector of our UT economy has been robbed of having been fully explored to contribute more than it has historically done in an inertial manner due to flip-flop, wavering, and patchwork strategies. Regarding the wealth of tourism-related riches this UT is endowed with, such as scenic landscapes, meadows, lakes, valleys, etc., we do not need any introduction to the outside world, but what we lack is a thorough and extensive tourist policy. It is obvious that emphasis on these important industries is necessary if sustainable employment generation is to be achieved.
At present, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have a lot of expectations from the present LG administration as every effort are regularly been made by them to remove the bottlenecks for a better tomorrow.