Lack of coordination once again comes to fore
Officers unaware of action taken on MoSPI communiques
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 21: Several districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are dilly-dallying on furnishing details relating to the works taken up under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) despite repeated reminders in this regard.
Moreover, the concerned officers, who have gone through the official communiqués of the Union Ministry, are unaware of the action taken at the district level thereby establishing lack of coordination between the officers sitting at the Civil Secretariat and the field functionaries.
The Union Cabinet in its meeting held on April 6, 2020 took the decision to freeze the operation of MPLADS for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22 and subsequent placing the annual budgetary outlay for 2020-21 at the disposal of the Finance Ministry for managing the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic.
Thereafter, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its bid to assess the situation in the aftermath of non-operation of MPLADS sought position of completed/ongoing works vis-à-vis funds in a prescribed format from all the Nodal District Authorities with cut-off date as March 31, 2020 along with the monthly progress report for the month of March 2020.
However, there was no timely compliance to the directions of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation by majority of the districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and this compelled the Ministry to dash a fresh communication dated June 1, 2020 to the Nodal Secretary of the MPLADS in Jammu and Kashmir (Administrative Secretary of the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department).
“Till date, nine districts of J&K Union Territory including Anantnag, Kulgam, Doda, Kupwara and Pulwama have not submitted the information relating to the works completed and ongoing as on March 31, 2020”, the Joint Secretary handling MPLADS Scheme in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had mentioned in the communication.
Accordingly, he had stressed that Government should issue suitable instructions to all the District Authorities to furnish the details in the prescribed format by end of June 2020 otherwise it will be understood that the States/ Districts have no committed liabilities up to March 31, 2020.
“This would form the basis for further stock taking and assessment of fund position by the Ministry”, the Joint Secretary had further mentioned in the communication.
However, requisite information from many districts has yet not reached the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “this is mainly because of lack of coordination between the concerned officers at the Civil Secretariat and in the districts”.
EXCELSIOR contacted a number of officers in the Department of Planning, Development and Monitoring to ascertain the reasons behind delay in furnishing of requisite information to the Ministry. However, none was ready to speak on the ground that a particular officer in the Finance Department is handling the MPLADS.
They took this stance despite the fact that Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had formally written to the Nodal Secretary of the MPLADS in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, who happens to be the Administrative Secretary of the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department.
When the particular officer in the Finance Department handling the MPLADS was contacted, he replied, “you can have access to the information from the website of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the link of which is also provided in the website of the Finance Department of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
In response to another question, he said, “all this is what I can say on the subject”.
All this clearly indicates the intensity of non-serious approach towards the communications of the Union Government on the aspect relating to the development of the Union Territory.
“Had there been enough coordination between the concerned district authorities and those sitting at the Civil Secretariat at least some officials of the Planning Department or the Finance Department would have been aware of impediments in furnishing of requisite information to the Union Ministry”, sources said.
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