*Experts engaged to prepare road-map
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 21: More than 16 months after the submission of report, the recommendations of the Dr Mahmooda Rahman headed State Finance Commission have finally received the required focus of the State Government, which has engaged a team of experts to prepare road-map for the implementation of the same.
The State Finance Commission was constituted in 2007 to look into regional imbalance or discrimination in the allotment of funds with any region or sub-region of the State and suggest corrective measures for equitable development. Though the Commission had to submit its report to the Government within a period of one year yet it took more than three years to accomplish the task assigned to it.
The report was finally submitted to the Government in November 2010 and since then there was no action on the recommendations of the Commission. Now, after over 16 months, the recommendations of the Commission have received the required attention of the Government, which has engaged two experts to work out the road-map for implementation of the report.
These experts are S Mahajan, former Secretary Planning and Development Department and G A Qureshi, former Director General, Economics and Statistics.
It is pertinent to mention here that these experts have recently accomplished the task of preparing draft of the 12th Five Year Plan of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Since the recommendations of the State Finance Commission are based on the data of 2008-09, the experts will have to carry out additional exercise vis-à-vis updating basic parameters keeping in view the figures of 2011 census”, sources said.
Besides road map for implementation of recommendations, they will prepare report on district development profile and identify critical gaps in infrastructure in respective districts and suggest measures to address the developmental backwardness of districts, sources further said, adding the experts have been asked to workout the percentage for resources allocation among the three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institution vis-à-vis Panchayat, Block Development Council and District Planning and Development Board, within the allocation earmarked for the districts.
These experts will suggest the broader frame work for distribution of resources amongst various sectors out of the allocation earmarked for the CD blocks. “They will clearly spell out the percentage allocation of resources to each block from within the District Plan”, sources said while disclosing that report will be submitted within a maximum period of six months.
It is worthwhile to mention here that Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, while replying to the discussion on the grants of the Departments under his charge in the Legislative Assembly, had made reference that recommendations of the State Finance Commission were being examined.
In order to ensure that the task assigned to the experts don’t get stretched beyond the prescribed time-frame, the Planning and Development Department has directed all the District Development Commissioners to facilitate the field visits of the experts if any and the Chief Planning Officers and District Statistics and Evaluation Officers asked to furnish latest relevant data to them.
According to the sources, the State Finance Commission has made admission, in its report, about the inter-district variation in the level of development and mentioned that developmental graph in some districts was very poor.
“Though the Commission has suggested a methodology for devolution of funds to the districts yet the same may have to be re-worked to bring blocks and local bodies under the ambit of that formula”, they said while disclosing that experts will be writing a note to the Government in this regard.
They said that State Planning Board, the blue-print of which has been prepared by the Planning and Development Department, is also one of the recommendations of the State Finance Commission.
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