Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of ensuring qualitative improvement in the lives of farmers by doubling their income by 2020. To achieve this target, the Union Government has increased allocations under different Centrally Sponsored Schemes and on numerous occasions the States have been told by the Union Agriculture Ministry that implementation of schemes should be taken up on a mission mode.
The goal to be achieved by 2020 has been set keeping in mind the fact that agriculture in the main stay of economy and majority of the population of the country lives in rural areas where agriculture and allied activities are the only sources of survival for the people. Apart from stressing implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes in letter and spirit, the Union Government also wants transfer of technology from labs to fields so as to increase productivity due to technological interventions.
However, J&K’s performance vis-à-vis implementation of almost all the Centrally Sponsored Schemes in agriculture sector has remained dismal till date. No doubt, Governor and Chief Minister have repeatedly been stressing on expanding the agricultural activities so as to increase productivity, which will help in achieving the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2020 but those who are required to translate instructions into reality are not ready to shoulder the responsibility.
Had there been required seriousness in implementing the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the expenditure for the financial year 2016-17 could not have been less than 60%. J&K doesn’t have enough resources to ensure turnaround in any sector as such it is mostly dependent on the assistance from the Union Government, which is more than liberal in granting financial help. But when it comes to make use of the funds we fail to perform much to the disappointment of concerned Ministry of the Union Government as well as heads of the State.
Many a times one or the other Union Ministry is compelled to either curtail or stop the funding to Jammu and Kashmir owing to inability of concerned authorities in this State to ensure proper and timely utilization of already released financial assistance. We have numerous instances to quote in this regard. Not only on timely and proper utilization of funds under Centrally Sponsored Schemes, J&K is also not coming up to the expectations of the Union Government as far as submission of Utilization Certificates is concerned.
As far as less than 60% utilization of funds under Centrally Sponsored Schemes in agriculture sector is concerned, we urge the Government to establish a dedicated cell in the Agriculture Production Department, which shall exclusively coordinate with the field level functionaries to periodically review utilization of funds so that J&K doesn’t lag behind in meeting the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2020. The objective of all the Centrally Sponsored Schemes is to make available all those facilities which will help in bringing more area under agricultural activities as such full utilization of funds becomes imperative. Even Chief Minister should immediately take a review of the Agriculture Production Department and pull up the officers so that during current financial year utilization of funds increases up to her expectations. Even otherwise allowing officers to avoid adherence to Government’s explicit directions doesn’t augur well for the State.
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