State’s failure to implement in full and on time most of the developmental projects sponsored and supported by the Central Government is becoming a matter of serious concern for the officialdom as well as the people of the State. In these columns we have been repeatedly writing on this issue. But it seems that the Government is unwilling to respond. What could be the reasons for such a wily and lackadaisical attitude? Is there real inefficiency in the administration that higher echelons of power are kept uninformed about major happening in the administrative sphere? Is this all happening advertently or inadvertently? Why is not the State administration responding to the questions raised by the Union Home Ministry and why it shuns submitting figures and facts when called upon to do so? This attitude of the Government becomes all the more enigmatic when the Central Government even offers funds to undertake the scheme and move forward. All that one can say in these circumstances is that the State Government does not play a fair game. And this is a statement nobody will be happy with.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, when he was the Union Ministry of Health and Family Planning, did some good work for his home State especially his electoral constituency of Bhaderwah-Doda. The people of the State were happy when he had declared opening of Super Specialty Hospitals in Srinagar and Jammu. His support was in providing better medical facilities and bringing the health care organization to the door steps of villagers. One very prestigious scheme which he had proposed for the J&K state was a 100-crore project of setting up National Institute of Medicinal Plants in the State. Eager to develop his constituency, the then Union Minister had specifically mentioned Bhaderwah in Jammu region as the prospective site. The first step was to identify the land. But despite several reminders from the Union Ministry of Health and lapses of time, the State Government did not take any serious step to identify the land. The scheme was left in limbo.
There has never been any controversy on the idea of the then Union Minister of Health and Family Planning that the institute should come up in Bhaderwah. The fact of the matter is that Bhaderwah is a beautiful place surrounded by dense forests and unique flora and fauna. Its mountains and gorges contain popular medicinal plants which have not been explored scientifically so far. With the establishment of the institute, we could have been able to find unique and precious medicinal plants that could be developed by the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture. This would have contributed to speedy development of this backward area and at the same time it would have provided employment to the educated and less educated youth in the region. Why the Government of the State has not taken up the matter seriously remains a puzzle.
The irony is that the Union Government has sent as many as three reminders to the Chief Secretary so far but there has not been any response. It obviously leads us to think that the State Government would like to underplay the project and one could attribute political motives to it which, if true, is unfortunate. Politicians have to work for the people and not for themselves. Generally members of Parliament care more for their respective constituencies because they are well versed with the problems and issue and requirements of their constituencies. It has also to be noted that the Government generally says that development of rural part of the State is among its priorities. If this is the fact then Bhaderwah genuinely deserved to be awarded the scheme. We often hear the State Government authorities handling Central schemes with far less enthusiasm though the leadership is always eager to waste no time in getting the grants released for these projects. There is definitely variance between demand and delivery in our State and this phenomenon should come to an end. The demand has to be compatible with delivery; one-sided traffic is not the way. Inertia of the Revenue Department can be gauged by it not seriously responding to the task of identifying the land around the town of Bhaderwah. If the authorities had performed their duty diligently and acquired the land as early as possible the Institute proposed to be built there would have come up long back. We all clamour that indigenous medicines and medical theories should be developed. Ayurveda is becoming popular in many developed countries like Japan and South East Asia. But it will remain a hollow claim if the pre-requisites are not made available. A large number of plants are known to experts of Ayurvedic and Yunani medical practitioners. Existence of National Institute for Medicinal Plants would have given great impetus to indigenous medical theories. We hope that no more delay will be made in the implementation of this prestigious scheme in our State.
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