High level meet on J&K’s PMRP today at PMO

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 20: The Prime Minister’s Officer (PMO) has called a high level meeting of the State Government bureaucrats at the PMO tomorrow for a detailed review of Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan (PMRP) works undertaken in the State sector and the works proposed during current financial year.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterji would chair the review meeting, the first during the current financial year. Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey would lead Jammu and Kashmir delegation, which comprised Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department BR Sharma, Principal Secretary, Finance Department BB Vyas, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department Arun Kumar Mehta, Commissioner/Secretary, Works Department Tanveer Jehan and Commissioner/Secretary Urban Development Department Jeet Lal Gupta among others.
The meeting is scheduled at the PMO at 3 pm, official sources told the Excelsior.
Other senior officers of the PMO would assist Mr Chatterji in the meeting.
They said all works undertaken in the hand by the State Government under the PMRP during the past few years, which have not been completed so far, would come up for detailed discussion in tomorrow’s meeting.
The works, which the State Government proposed to start during current financial years under the PMRP, would also be discussed.
The Chief Secretary of the State along with the Planning, Finance, Power and Works Administrative Secretaries would give a detailed presentation on the progress of works under the PMRP including the works completed during last financial years, the ongoing works, which were due to be completed in the current fiscal and the works, which could take some more time for completion.
During 2012-13, out of Rs 700 crore given to the State under the PMRP, the Government had earmarked Rs 195.24 crore on strengthening of Transmission and Distribution (T&D) network and Rs 105.29 crore for further construction, upgradation and other works on Mughal Road.
Other works undertaken last fiscal included rehabilitation of dwellers within Dal and Nigeen lakes (Rs 233.82 crore) and construction of 5242 two room tenements for Kashmiri migrants (Rs 45.65 crore).
The Government had kept a provision of Rs 120 crore for Counterpart Fund and Asian Development Bank (Part-II).
While Dal lake works were close to completion, Mughal road works were likely to be completed in the current financial year. Some of the works undertaken by the Economic Re-construction Agency (ERA) and under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) were apace while works on reducing T&D losses were expected to take some more time, sources said.
They said during current financial year i.e. 2013-14, the State Government has staked claim for Rs 600 crore under the PMRP as compared to Rs 700 crore granted to it during the last fiscal year of 2012-13 and Rs 1207 crore in 2011-12.
They added that the State had been able to spend half of the amount sanctioned under the PMRP during 2011-12 due to which it was given only Rs 700 crore in 2012-13 but a major part of the amount was not released by the end of last fiscal year. The State delegation would take up with the PMO to press the Planning Commission to release all pending funds under the PMRP and current year’s Rs 600 crore  along with annual plan to help it complete the unfinished works and undertake some more works in the hand.
The PMRP, which was Rs 24,467 crore in 2004 when it was announced by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as the head of UPA-I, has already gone up to Rs 32,000 crore mainly due to escalation of prices of different projects.
The plan, which was given to the State as an economic package for raising infrastructure damaged during the militancy, is being implemented in two sectors-Central and State. The Central projects, mainly power generating hydro-electric projects, are being constructed by National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) while State sector projects are being executed by different agencies.
Out of revised estimates of PMRP worth Rs 32,000 crore, about Rs 20,000 crore are reserved for Central sector while remaining amount of Rs 12,000 crore is at the disposal of the State Government. An estimated 60 to 65 per cent amount of the PMRP has been utilized so far.
The State amount under the PMRP is released in installments every year with this year’s share kept at Rs 600 crore. The amount could go up if the Centre agreed to release the withheld amount for the past two years.

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