* Refuses to accept DPR for 2014-15
Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, July 29: Indicting State Government of serious slackness in implementation of the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Union Ministry of Rural Department has shot off a letter to the State Government criticising the concerned agencies for their failure to ensure timely completion of sanctioned projects worth Rs 2715 crores in the border State.
Perturbed over the State of affairs, the Union Ministry has categorically told the State to ensure expeditious completion of pending road works.
Reliable sources said the Central Ministry while advising the State Government on enhancement of their execution capacity for the pending projects worth Rs 2715 crores has categorically told the officials not to submit any Detail Project Reports (DPRs) for the year 2014-15.
According to the letter from the office of Union Rural Ministry dated July 22, 2014 bearing no. P-17017/12/2014-RC, which is in possession of EXCELSIOR, “Jammu and Kashmir figures prominently among the list of States with huge pendency of PMGSY projects. The balance works in hand are even more than 3 times the value of the execution capacity of the State (Rs 610 crores)”.
Ironically, while the letter categorically states that projects worth Rs 2715 crores are pending in different regions of the State, the respective officials of the Department in Jammu and Kashmir seem to be unaware of these facts. “While some officials claimed that the DPR had already been sent to the Union Rural Ministry, others chose to pass the blame on their colleagues, while claiming that all projects were on time in their territory”, sources remarked.
The official document of the Union Ministry says, “an analysis of balance projects in hands vis-à-vis three times higher than execution capacity of the State indicate that seven States including Jammu and Kashmir already have balance works in hand. Other States which fall in this category included Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Meghalaya and West Bengal”.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, there are balance works worth Rs 2715 crores in hand, which are more than three times in value of the execution capacity of the State”, says the letter adding, “hence, the State should focus on expeditious completion of pending road works and enhancement of their execution capacity in 2014-15′.
Elaborating further, the documents says, “as per the programme guidelines of PMGSY, the clearance of the projects is being accorded on the submission of DPRs, which are prepared based on approved Schedule of Rate (SoR) of concerned State in the current financial year. However, it has been observed that higher project clearance vis-à-vis the execution capacity of state results not only in delayed completion of the sanctioned projects but also creates additional financial burden on the State exchequer due to cost escalation”.
The Union Rural Ministry has prepared an Indicative Project Clearance, three times higher than execution capacity, for year 2014-15 which would facilitate submission of DPRs in accordance with the execution capacity of State. The letter, written by Manju Rajpal, Deputy Secretary in the Union Rural Department has been addressed to the Principal Secretary of the concerned Department.
Asked about the huge delays in implementation of PMGSY schemes that are aimed to ensure all weather connectivity to rural areas, Minister for PWD (R&B) Abdul Majid Wani confessed, “several projects had been pending due to land compensation issues in several districts. Though the then UPA Government had provided liberal funding meant for compensation purposes under the category of the Prime Minister Reconstruction Plan (PMRP), several clearances were required for implementation of these projects”.
CE PMGSY, Jammu, Mr D D Gorkha said, “less than 10 projects were pending in his region due to forest clearance issues and few other had been delayed due to land acquisition process”.
CE PMGSY, Kashmir, Mr Bimal Tickoo stated, “all is well in Kashmir and Ladakh and there aren’t many delays. There were some issues pertaining to projects as ours is a hilly State and the land acquisition process is also time consuming. While in several other States, people had voluntarily offered their land for use under PMGSY schemes, we have to acquire land and compensate the owners”.
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