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SASCI a debit trap, says Mehbooba
PDP legislative party leader on Monday also raised this issue in the legislative assembly and tried to explain how this aid in long way prove as highest burden for J&K and said this should be discussed in the House committee
Former J&K chief minister (CM) Mehbooba Mufti on Monday termed SASCI as debit trap and historical betrayal from NC.
PDP legislative party leader on Monday also raised this issue in the Legislative Assembly and tried to explain how this aid in long way prove as highest burden for J&K and said this should be discussed in the House committee.
“Waheed Para today exposed a deeply dangerous move by the J&K government taking money under SASCI in the name of ‘aid’ when in reality it is a 50-year market loan. If the state fails to repay, our public infrastructure will be mortgaged and handed over to private control,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti wrote on X.
She termed it as a nothing short of putting J&K’s future on sale. “This issue must be debated urgently in the assembly because it will shackle coming generations with unbearable debt. If this reckless path continues, whatever little survived after August 5, 2019 disaster , will be auctioned off and the NC government will be solely responsible for this historic betrayal.”
PDP CLP leader and legislator from Pulwama Waheed-ur-Rehman Para on Monday raised this issue in assembly. “Its a debt-fuelled optics that mortgage the region’s future to finance the present government’s politics... The rollout of SASCI in J&K represents not fiscal empowerment but fiscal overreach disguised as development. While positioned by the Government of India as ‘interest-free assistance’, the scheme is structurally a debt instrument that transfers long-term liabilities onto a region with one of the weakest revenue bases and highest public expenditure burdens in the country. Introducing large-scale borrowing into such a fragile economy without first strengthening private industry, employment generation, and productive capacity is economically unsound and potentially destabilising. Instead of prioritising high-return sectors like agriculture value chains, local manufacturing, or entrepreneurship, the current administration appears intent on deploying SASCI funds toward capital-heavy, optics-driven infrastructure that delivers political visibility rather than economic viability,” he said.
Para said that this reflects short-term political calculus, not sustainable planning.
Para further questioned that why would government go for more loans when expenditures are already less. “The government should discuss the issue in the House committe.”
