Rs 416 lakh liability of 2017-18 yet to be cleared
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 3: Almost all the works under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) have come to the grinding halt in Leh district because of the failure of the State Government to give authorization for execution of schemes as per the current year’s Action Plan. Moreover, work done liability to the tune of Rs 416 lakh of previous financial year has yet not been cleared by the Government for unknown reasons.
As per the official document, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, in 2017-18 an Annual Action Plan of Rs 1753.18 lakh was submitted by the Leh district administration to the State Government in compliance to the directions issued by the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department.
However, Government approved the annual allocation of Rs 1461 lakh against the Action Plan of Rs 1753.18 lakh. Of this, Rs 97.71 lakh was approved for Khaltsi and Rs 361.36 lakh for Nubra, which are situated along the Line of Control between India-Pakistan. Similarly, an amount of Rs 590.14 lakh was approved for Nyoma and Rs 411.79 lakh for Durbuk, which are situated in Indo-China sector.
Thereafter, the Planning Department vide Letter No.PD/CSS/BADP/AAP 2017-18/12 dated September 5, 2017 and September 13, 2017 gave authorization for execution of 50% of the allocation as per Annual Action Plan.
But actually an amount of only Rs 1210.01 lakh was released against the approved allocation of Rs 1461 lakh thereby creating liability of Rs 250 lakh. Moreover, at the later stage 133 works were deleted from the Annual Action Plan including ongoing schemes.
“As works were already executed on the basis of the authorization and keeping in view the short working season, the work done liability increased to Rs 416.18 lakh”, official sources said, adding “though the issue of work done liability was raised before the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department a number of times yet no funds have been released till date for clearance of the liability”.
Moreover, no authorization has been given for execution of works as per the Annual Action Plan of current financial year as a result of which almost all the BADP works have come to grinding halt in the areas along Line of Control with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control with China, sources informed.
It is pertinent to mention here that under the Annual Action Plan for 2018-19 financial year, the Leh administration has projected requirement of Rs 1002 lakh. Of this, Rs 67.83 lakh has been proposed for Khaltsi and Rs 248.03 lakh for Nubra along Line of Control with Pakistan while as an amount of Rs 402.71 lakh has been proposed for Nyoma and Rs 283.43 lakh for Durbuk along the Line of Actual Control with China.
According to the sources, the issue of work done liability of Rs 416.18 lakh was also brought to the notice of Governor N N Vohra during his visit to Leh early last month and he had asked the Administrative Secretary of Planning, Development and Monitoring Department to examine pending liability of BADP in the district and submit a detailed note by July 21 mentioning the amount required to be allocated for clearing the liability but Government has not come up with any formal order regarding sanctioning of funds.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Leh district administration confirmed that neither work done liability of last financial year has been cleared nor authorization given for execution of works under current year’s Action Plan.
Admitting that almost all the BADP works have come to the grinding halt, he said, “nobody wants to take risk of executing works proposed under current year’s Action Plan without formal authorization especially when liability of last year is yet to be cleared”.
Moreover, no funds have been released to the Leh district under Tribal Sub-Plan schemes since 2014-15 although Action Plans were submitted annually.
“Work done liability of Rs 213.60 lakh is pending in various sectors because of non-release of funds under Annual Action Plan”, they said while disclosing that physical completion of such works requires an amount of Rs 744.40 lakh.
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