Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 10: The Government today notified schedule for holding District Development Board (DDB) meetings beginning with Baramulla and Kupwara districts on June 18 and concluding with Jammu and Reasi districts on July 8 even as an announcement for constitution of the Boards including names of their chairpersons was expected in the next few days.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Planning and Development Department headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has notified schedule of the DDB meetings for 20 districts of the State. Leh and Kargil, the two other districts of the State, don’t have the DDBs as they have been granted Autonomous Hill Development Councils.
Significantly, the DDB meetings of two districts will be held on single day at one venue, with one meeting scheduled in the morning and another in the afternoon after lunch break. This, according to sources, has been done to save the time as the Government has already delayed constitution of the DDBs and nomination of their chairpersons.
“The process for nominating chairpersons to the DDBs was likely to be completed in the next few days,” sources said, adding the talks were on between two coalition partners-the PDP and BJP on sharing 20 posts of the DDB chairpersons. The Alliance has 19 Cabinet Ministers including the Chief Minister and each one of them was expected to head one Board. One Minister will have to head two DDBs.
As per the past practice, the Chief Minister used to head two DDBs of capital cities-Jammu and Srinagar.
The Board meetings of twin rotational capital cities of the State including Srinagar and Jammu have been scheduled for July 6 and 8 respectively. The DDB meetings will start with Baramulla and Kupwara districts on June 18. Both the meetings will be held at Baramulla, first in the morning session and second in the afternoon session. The DDB meetings of twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch will be held at Rajouri on June 20.
Sources said the DDB meetings of Anantnag and Kulgam districts were scheduled on June 22 at Anantnag while the meetings of Doda and Kishtwar districts will be held on June 24 at Doda. The DDB meetings of Ganderbal and Bandipora districts will be held on June 27 at Ganderbal while the Board meetings of Udhampur and Ramban were scheduled for June 29 at Udhampur.
The DDB meetings of Pulwama and Shopian districts were slated to be held on July 1 at Pulwama followed by meetings of Kathua and Samba districts on July 4 at Kathua. The meetings of Srinagar and Budgam districts were slated for July 6 and will be held at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC). The DDB meetings of Jammu and Reasi districts will be held on July 8 at Banquet Hall at the Chief Minister’s official residence.
Sources said the Planning and Development Department headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed himself with most of the powers delegated to Principal Secretary, Planning BR Sharma is on the job of constituting the DDBs and would soon come out with names of the chairpersons of all 20 DDBs. The announcement of the names of the chairpersons of the DDBs and their members would take place well before the first meeting scheduled on June 18.
“All concerned Members of Parliament (MPs), both from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, legislators (MLAs/MLCs) etc would be members of the DDBs among others,” sources said.
The meetings will finalize plan of the districts and identify new development works to be taken up by the Boards,” they said.
They attributed delay in constitution of the DDBs to formation of new Government, which took initial days to settle down, followed by the Legislature session and Darbar Move.
Worthwhile to mention here that in next five days, two and half months of current financial year will be completed. However, according to sources, the Government has already authorized 25 per cent funds allocation to the District Development Commissioners (DDCs) to go ahead with the ongoing developmental works and other Government expenditure. The complete plan of the districts will be finalized only by the DDBs.
The DDBs had ceased to exist after exit of National Conference-Congress Government in December last year. During 2002-2005 PDP Government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, a new mechanism had been introduced for the DDBs with entire Cabinet joining their meetings for on spot approval of the works and sorting out the issues pertaining to different Ministries.
In other States, the heads of Block Development Councils (BDCs) also formed parts of the DDBs but in Jammu and Kashmir, the BDCs have not been constituted even after four years of the Panchayat elections. In the three-tier Panchayati Raj system, the DDBs are replaced by the District Development and Planning Boards (DDPBs). However, since elections to the BDCs were not held, the DDPBs too couldn’t be constituted. The DDPBs in majority of the Indian States are headed by the Panchayat representatives but in Jammu and Kashmir, they are generally headed by the Chief Minister (capital cities) and Cabinet Ministers.
Presently, the PDP-BJP coalition Government has 19 Cabinet Ministers—PDP 11 and BJP eight.
Most of the decisions pertaining to developmental works in the districts are taken by the DDBs. It is mandatory for the DDBs to hold developmental works with approval of the DDBs. Annual plan of the districts is also approved in the DDB meetings.
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