Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Sept 25 : With Government offices apparently up and running, the files there, especially in the Civil Secretariat, are moving at snail’s pace. The job that used to take few days is now taking months to see the day light, officials said.
Officials said that there are several files of the Health Department lying pending in the Secretariat which should have been cleared by now, but the officials from the department following-up with the status of the files are finding it hard to get things done in time. They said that unlike present times, such tasks used to finish up quickly.
A file of the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir for the formation of State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) critical for the implementation of the Tobacco Control in J&K is lying in the Secretariat for last more than four months now. However, due to the lethargic attitude of the administration—with added delay since August 5—there has been no headway till date.
The official said that the SLCC once formed was set to be headed by the Chief Secretary with other stakeholders such as members from the Panchayat, Education Department, Food Control and Safety and others on board. “The SLCC is proposed to be tasked to form the policy for the tobacco control as per WHO’s FCTC; but so far, it has been delayed; may be the priorities of the Government are different as of now,” the official added.
Moreover, the Tobacco Control Program run by the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir was all set to declare two Kashmir Districts at Tobacco Free by December this year is all set to witness more delay. “In the same fashion, there are many other tasks lying pending and are witnessing undue delays as of now,” another official told Excelsior.
Further, apart from the Civil Secretariat, the departments executing the central projects in J&K and are in constant correspondence with the agencies outside J&K are finding it tough to execute their works in the absence of communication.
“Imagine you are being told to use fax to correspond with the agencies outside; you have to arrange it all by coordinating with them (the agencies). It takes time; at some instances where there is non-availability of fax on the other side. We just post the things out; the work that we are doing, what matters is the timing as it is critical for the funding that we receive,” an official who is heading a centrally funded project in Kashmir said.
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