Home tops list of unfulfilled assurances
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Feb 11: In utter disrespect to the prescribed Rules, most of the Departments were adopting a casual approach towards the fulfillment of commitments of the Ministers made on the Floor of the House from time to time, particularly in respect of assurance held out in reply to Assembly Questions.
Further, some Departments were adopting a time consuming approach in the implementation of assurances on the matters of “Urgent Public Importance” despite the fact that they were under obligation to ensure the implementation of the commitments made by the Ministers, within the shortest possible time besides communicating the action, so taken, to the Assembly Secretariat.
This has been observed by the House Committee on Government Assurances in its latest report, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly, here yesterday.
As per the report, 478 commitments and assurances made on Floor of the House by the Ministers of different Departments in reply to the questions by MLAs, have not been fulfilled so far. A number of such commitments pertain to ex-gratia relief to the calamity victims, Compassionate Appointment under SRO-43, compensation cases, clearance of pending cases of Old Age/Widow pension, etc.
Ironically, the Department of Home, which is traditionally headed by the Chief Minister of the State, tops the list of such unfulfilled commitments in the Assembly. From March 2006 to February 2017, there are 70 such commitments pertaining to the Home Department, which were made by the Chief Ministers of that time but not fulfilled so far. Maximum number of these unfulfilled commitments was made by then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from 2009 to 2014. Seven such Home Department assurances are from the period of then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad while 15 assurances made during the present regime, are unfilled.
General Administration Department, which is also headed by the Chief Minister, has 14 such unfulfilled commitments made on Floor of the House from time to time.
The Home Department is followed by Social Welfare Department , which has not fulfilled 55 commitments made on Floor of the House by the Minister Incharge from time to time. The Department of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control has failed to fulfill 47 such commitments.
Housing & Urban Development Department has not fulfilled 35 commitments made in the Legislative Assembly while there has been no progress on 32 commitments of the Minister Incharge, School Education Department.
There are 22 such unfulfilled commitments, each to the credit of the Departments of Revenue, Tourism and Technical Education, Youth Services & Sports .
According to the Assurance Committee Report, the Department of Planning & Ladakh Affairs did not fulfill 21 commitments made on Floor of the House while the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation has 14 unfulfilled commitments and Power Development Department has 13 such assurances.
The Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Industries and Commerce, Roads and Building, each have not fulfilled nine commitments made on Floor of the House while the Departments of Animal Husbandry and Finance each did not fulfill 10 such assurances.
Besides, the number of such unfulfilled commitments also pertains to the Departments of Forest, Health and Medical Education, Civil Aviation, Haj & Auqaf, Information, Labour and Employment, Higher Education, Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs, Parks and Gardens, Transport and Science & Technology.
Non-seriousness of the Government towards its commitments and assurances can be further gauged from the fact that in response to some questions, the Government has not even collected the required information even after several years, what to talk of action on the same.
Pertinent to mention that the House Committee on Government Assurances, headed by Nawang Rigzin Jora as its Chairman, was constituted last year and assigned the task of examining the Action Taken Reports furnished by various departments in respect of assurances contained in the 21 report of the Committee besides extracting fresh Assurances from the proceedings of the House up to Budget Session 2017-18.
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