J&K minister seeks state currency

SRINAGAR: With just nine months to go for assembly elections, Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Tariq Hameed Karra has stirred a hornet’s nest by advocating for a separate currency for the state under the controversial self-rule formula of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

“We have lost our 500-year-old identity. We even had our own currency. Once our self-rule formula is implemented, we will again have it. Even Northern Ireland has its own currency,” Karra said at a function here.

His demand has once again brought back the ghost of 2000 when the National Conference passed a resolution seeking autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir. The demand was, however, rejected by the then NDA government at the Centre describing it as an attempt to create a “state within the state”.

“The PDP’s agenda is to neutralise the historical excesses that have happened in J&K. Our vision is primarily based on liberty,” Karra said.

The PDP and the Congress have been at loggerheads over the self-rule formula. The Congress has all along been opposing it as an attempt to create a state within the state. “This is a borrowed theory of Pervez Musharraf. How can we agree to it?” said a senior Congress leader.

h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net