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Srinagar, Mar 21 (UNI) Dispelling the impression that Jammu and Kashmir is a state with a begging bowl looking towards Delhi for doles, Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra said the state is gifted with enormous natural and water resources to fully take care of its financial requirements.

However, he said, the restrictions on the use water and natural resources have put the state at a disadvantageous position limiting its economic capabilities,'' Mr Karra said at a public meeting at Natipora today.

He said the state was facing a recurring annual loss of around Rs 6000 crore because of the discriminatory Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

'' We suffered losses because of the Indus Treaty otherwise we would be well placed financially to take care of all our fiscal problems,'' he said and added the money losses suffered because of the treaty was used not only for the State's development but generation of enough employment opportunities as well.

''Whatever funds we are getting from Delhi is our entitlement like all other States, except for some special grants which are insufficient to make for our treaty losses,'' he said.

Mr Karra said several measures were in the offing for the Srinagar city's glorious past and within next few years there would be a complete turn-around in the city's developmental profile.

He said Rs 12 crore announced by the Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig at Batamalloo recently would be utilized for the removal of bottlenecks in the city to overcome the traffic congestion.

He said work on removal of bottlenecks would be started in April first week.

He said the Government was also planning a network of express corridors in and around the city to take care of the mounting traffic congestion.

Mr Karra said Amirakadal is a politically significant constituency as it had pioneered a historic change in 1987 by trying to democratically dislodge the National Conference by voting for the then Muslim United front (MUF) candidate Mohammad Yousuf Shah, the present chief of United Jehad Council, based in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

''However, the people's verdict was mauled and crushed by the NC ruthlessly forcing Mohammad Yousuf Shah to rechristen himself in a dangerously placed new avatar - Salah-ud-Din,'' he said and added the trail of unending death and destruction that started with the worst ever rigging of the most infamous election in 1987.

Condemning the fly-over blast, Mr Karra said the perpetrators must realize that violence had lost its relevance and targeting innocent civilians would only add to public outrage against such senseless acts.

He said by resorting to such acts, the perpetrators were only adding to the miseries of the hapless Kashmiris, who have already been subjected to colossal death and destruction.

Mr Karra said the fast-changing equations in and outside the State call for a more sensible approach towards the resolution of problems and taking recourse to political and democratic means for securing the political and economic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI BAS JT DB1821