Agenda for Alliance is the policy framework within which the Coalition Government of PDP and BJP is supposed to function. Good deal of discussions and interaction among the stakeholders has taken place before the final draft of the Agenda for Alliance was cobbled. Since there was ideological divergence in the political philosophy of the coalition partners, it became an imperative to script the Agenda for Alliance simply for smooth running of the administration and initiating steps that would lead to the infrastructural development of the State. The Agenda of Alliance is an important landmark in the history of constitutional and administrative performance of the State. As the political scenario is of today, the simple inference is that in future coalition Governments have more chances to be in place rather than a single party majority Government. In that sense our legislators and parliamentarians have to learn the art of running the administration of the State under a different set of conditions.
After taking up the reins of the Government, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti shad to focus on the recommendations of the Agenda for Alliance and ensure that these recommendations are implemented in letter and in spirit. She found it feasible to constitute the Groups of Ministers under the chairmanship of one of her cabinet ministers assisted by other ministers to coordinate not only administrative but also the developmental programmes and projects especially in the infrastructural areas so that the State is put on fast track development. Three Groups of Ministers were constituted and the sector were assigned to each group.
These groups were expected to study the recommendations made in the vision document and then contribute to that vision by practically gearing up the concerned departments, coordinating their efforts, monitoring the progress and reporting the achievements made. It is obvious that building the infrastructure for development is not the task of a single department because development is always coordinated. How should that coordination work is the main question. In the vision document, thrust was laid on formulation of regional developmental plans to ensure that each region has a specific and focused economic activity that spurs development of the State. The simple inference was that there was the need of greater participation of the departments in decision making and promoting coordinated policy. This is a slightly different approach to infrastructural development policy of the State. Perhaps the Chief Minister has got the inspiration from the Prime Minister who has constituted Groups of Secretaries of various central ministries to coordinate, implement and monitor the projects leading to the fulfillment of developmental programme in the country.
We feel somewhat uneasy that the good and serious intentions of the Chief Minister are not receiving the right type of response that the Groups of Ministers should give. For example, ever since the Groups of Ministers were formulated, no group has held a single meeting all these seven months to draw a plan of how the task assigned to it would be tackled. Total apathy of the Ministers is disappointing and it appears that the approach of the Chief Minister is either not understood by the Ministers or that they are not showing any interest in what they are asked to do. The fact is that the plans, reports and monitoring process by the ministers could have the potential of becoming a guideline for the Government in drawing the developmental plan for the State. The defeat of the Agenda for Alliance will spill disaster for the State. We would like to emphasize that at a time when the Central Government is more than cooperative and there is no paucity of funds for the projects, it is unfortunate that the Ministers and the departments are not visionary enough to help improve and hasten development of the State. The General Administration Department has been sleeping over the matter and not even once did it send a reminder to the chairpersons of the concerned Groups of Ministers to take steps towards calling the meetings of their respective groups and bringing forth the issues that need consideration. It has to be said that bifurcation of political and administrative points and pursuing them separately within the State as well as with the Central Government is not enough. Post-bifurcation scenario is not clear.
The point is that ministers and bureaucrats shall have to shun their lethargy and slackness. Our State has gone through difficult times and there is great need of bringing about economic revolution of sorts. We are lagging behind in infrastructural development. We are not keeping pace with the speed of development with which other parts of the country are moving. Therefore the ministers and the administration shall have to take stock of their performance. Just having the mandate of the people is not enough. Uninterrupted development is what we need. It is delivery that counts.
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