*No ‘Disha’ meeting held in Valley, Ladakh; only 5 in Jammu
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 1: Majority of the Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from Jammu and Kashmir have failed to take seriously the directives of the Union Government regarding monitoring of implementation of 28 Centrally Sponsored Schemes by convening timely meetings of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees. Even Deputy Commissioners of 17 districts are equally responsible for this as they despite being Member Secretaries of the Committees have failed to follow the instructions issued by the Chief Secretary in this regard.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that as a large number of significant and ambitious programmes are being implemented by the Union Government in all the States including Jammu and Kashmir for improvement of infrastructure and human development, ensuring better coordination among all the concerned agencies becomes imperative.
Keeping this aspect in mind the Union Government in the month of June this year formed District Coordination and Monitoring Committee (Disha) by superseding the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee mandated by the Ministry of Rural Development. Accordingly, communications were sent to all the States including J&K along with the guidelines for speedier and more effective implementation of various schemes.
It was explicitly stated in the communication dated June 27, 2016 addressed to the Chief Secretary, B R Sharma by Jitendra Shankar Mathur, Secretary Union Ministry of Rural Development that Disha (headed by concerned MP as its Chairperson) would ensure better coordination among all the levels of elected representatives in Parliament, State Legislatures and Local Governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions/ Municipal Bodies) for efficient and time-bound development of the districts.
It was also mentioned in the communication that meetings of Disha should be held in accordance with the guidelines—in the months of April, July, October and February of each year and Member Secretary of the Disha (concerned Deputy Commissioner of the district) shall fix the dates of the meetings.
However, majority of the Members of Parliament of J&K have failed to act seriously on the step initiated by the Union Government, which is evident from the fact that Disha meetings of only five districts have been held in respect of Jammu province while as in Kashmir valley and Ladakh region no such meeting has been convened till date by the respective Members of Parliament, sources said.
In Jammu region, the Disha meetings of Jammu, Samba, Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua districts have been convened. While the Member of Parliament from Jammu-Poonch Parliamentary seat Jugal Kishore Sharma has convened Disha meetings of all the districts falling in his constituency, the Member of Parliament from Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Parliament constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh has convened meeting of only Kathua district mainly because of his busy schedule in the Union Government. He is reportedly going to hold meetings of other districts in the days to come.
As far as Jammu region is concerned, the Disha meetings of Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts are yet to be convened while as such meetings of all the 10 districts of Kashmir valley and two districts of Ladakh have yet not been conducted by the concerned Members of Parliament.
At present there are two Lok Sabha MPs from the Kashmir valley—-Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Tariq Hamid Qarra (both PDP) as the third seat is lying vacant following registration of Mehbooba Mufti owing to her election as Chief Minister and MLA. Thupstan Chhewang (BJP) is the MP from Ladakh region.
“Not only concerned Members of Parliament even the Deputy Commissioners of 17 districts of the State are also responsible for non-adherence to the directives of the Union Government as being Member Secretary of the Disha they are required to fix the dates of the meetings in consultation with the concerned MP”, sources said.
As per the guidelines of the Disha, the first implementation review of the programmes should be conducted in the month of July while as second review in the month of October to identify the constraints to timely completion of works and in the month of February final assessment of progress made during the year is required to be made.
“By delaying Disha meetings the Members of Parliament have failed to timely take first review”, sources said, adding “whether the MPs would be able to complete the first implementation review before holding of second review next month remains a million dollar question. Under the prevailing situation, very little time would be left for the concerned agencies to follow the instructions of MPs before holding of second review”.
The objective of the Disha is to ensure that all programmes are implemented in accordance with the guidelines; facilitate coordinated solution to remove constraints of any kind; facilitate the smooth implementation of priorities; resolve matters related to provision of land and space for faster roll out of priorities; identify issues for follow-up in Parliament, State Assemblies and Local Governments for timely achievement of objectives and closely review of the flow of funds.
All the Members of the Legislative Assembly elected from the concerned district besides district level nodal functionaries of all the programmes are the members of Disha.
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