Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 26: N.N. Vohra, Governor, has directed the Principal Secretary Finance, to have the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) expedited from the defaulting departments and review them early.
The Governor has also directed that a Standard Operation Procedure should be formulated for laying down a framework of ‘dos and donts’ for ensuring that work of the prescribed quality is carried out within the committed time frame and all the concerned departments take the required remedial measures well in time.
The Governor was reviewing the action taken consequent to the physical inspection of 126 development projects by the Project Monitoring Cell.
The Governor has desired that based on the identified actionable points which have been brought out by the Monitoring Cell workshops should be organized, to begin at Srinagar and Jammu, to inform, educate and re-orient the concerned officers of the various departments which are involved with planning, implementation and monitoring. The Governor has observed that the holding of such workshops will help in capacity building and reducing mistakes commonly made during project execution. He has desired that, later, such programmes could also be organized at the district level.
It was disclosed that out of the 126 projects and schemes inspected, Action Taken Reports (ATRs) in respect of 49 projects have been received from various departments. The projects inspected by the Monitoring Cell include 39 projects of PWD (R&B); 21 of Health & Medical Education Department; 08 of Tourism and Culture Department; 06 of Technical Education Department; 04 of School Education Department; 04 of Revenue Department; 06 of PDD; 26 of PHE, I&FC Department; 04 of Industries& Commerce Department; 04 of Housing & Urban Development; 03 of Higher Education Department; and 01 of Hospitality & Protocol Department.
The inspections carried out by the Monitoring Cell have brought out certain generic issues in project implementation which include important failures like non-accordance of technical sanctions and administrative approvals; slow pace of work due to inadequate funding; cost and time overruns; land acquisition issues; delays in the shifting of utilities; court cases; delays on account of non- availability of Laboratories for testing samples at the construction sites; delay in grant of NOCs and clearances by various agencies; encroachments; diversion and misappropriation of funds; lack of co-ordination amongst agencies; issues relating to unsatisfactory quality of materials; improper boundary demarcation of site; poor workmanship; poor quality of construction and works; absence of proper mechanism for project monitoring; delay in the removal of private structures from the project land; lack of protection works for prevention of soil erosion; non utilization of the assets created; improper functional planning; maintenance issues; non-availability of proper approach roads and delays in the submission of Utilization Certificates.
The Governor has asked the Principal Secretary Finance, B.B. Vyas to circulate the defaults and aberrations to all Administrative Secretaries and ask them to particularly ensure against such failures in project formulation and project execution.
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