Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 9: Notwithstanding the repeated instructions of the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah about timely completion of developmental works, a total of 203 projects that too in the vital sectors of water, power and public works have failed to meet the completion target despite expenditure of Rs 690 crore.
According to the information available with EXCELSIOR, 108 projects of the Public Health Engineering Department, 92 of the Public Works Department and three of the Power Development Department could not meet the target date of completion—March 31, 2013 and as against sanctioned cost of Rs 1,051 crore an amount of Rs 690 crore was incurred on these projects during the past several years.
The work on these projects each costing Rs one crore and above was started on different dates during the period between 2003-04 and 2010-11 and target year of completion in majority of these projects was 2012-13. The non-completion of these projects clearly points towards the slackness of the departments executing the projects as sufficient funds were made available to the concerned departments.
As against sanctioned cost of Rs 535 crore, an amount of Rs 261 crore was spent on 108 projects of the Public Health Engineering Department till March 31, 2013. Similarly, an amount of Rs 421 crore was incurred on 92 projects sanctioned at a cost of Rs 507 crore and an amount of Rs 8 crore out of sanctioned cost of Rs 9 crore was spent on three projects of the Power Development Department.
Due to non-completion of these projects, the people were deprived of the benefits of Water Supply Schemes and better road connectivity despite the fact that these projects had to be sanctioned by the concerned departments following intense pressure from the common masses. As majority of these projects fall in the rural areas, delay in their completion was an act of rubbing salt on the wounds of the people from remote and far-off areas.
Similarly, due to delay in completion of the projects in power sector the electrification of villages could not be completed well in time and resulted into resentment among the people.
Meanwhile, delay in furnishing of Utilization Certificates has remained a matter of serious concern although State Government has been reprimanded in this regard a number of times.
Financial Rules provide that for the grants provided for specific purposes, Utilization Certificates (UCs) should be obtained by the departmental officers from the grantees and after verification, these should be forwarded to the Accountant General J&K within 18 months from the date of their sanction unless specified otherwise.
A total of 2161 UCs involving Rs 1339 crore were outstanding as on March 31, 2013 of which 1064 UCs amounting Rs 631 crore were outstanding for more than one year.
Out of 2161 outstanding UCs, there was delay of up to one year in respect of 1097 UCs involving Rs 707.60 crore while as delay of one to two years was observed in respect of 273 UCs involving Rs 137.13 crore. Similarly, there was delay of above two years in submission of 791 UCs involving Rs 494.15 crore.
“It seems that Government departments don’t want to mend their ways on the UCs issue and learn a lesson from the action taken against J&K by various Union Ministries over delay in furnishing of UCs in the past”, sources said. It is pertinent to mention here that on many occasions the Union Ministries even withheld the next installments for want of UCs.
“What to talk of other departments, even the Finance Department doesn’t want to take corrective measures on the shortcomings being detected in the State Finances”, they said, adding “no action taken report has been sent by the Finance Department to the Public Accounts Committee on the audit observations/recommendations contained in any of the reports on State Finances”.
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