Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 28: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who holds the charge of Planning and Development Department, has directed the District Development Board (DDB) chairpersons to hold the Board meetings at the earliest to set in motion the process for finalization of annual plan of the districts to initiate developmental works there.
The Chief Minister has asked the Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department B B Vyas to draw up schedule of the DDB meetings in consultations with the chairpersons, who happened to be the Cabinet Ministers, in such a way that the Board meetings are finished before start of the Assembly session on May 25.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Planning and Development Department now proposed to hold meetings of all 20 DDBs between May 9 to 23. Meetings of two DDBs could be held on one day, they said.
“The meetings can now start only on May 9 as the Civil Secretariat, seat of the Government, which will close here tomorrow, will re-open in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State, on that day. From April 29 to May 8, the Secretariat and other offices will remain closed and, therefore, it was not possible for the DDB chairpersons to hold meetings,’’ sources said.
In view of this, they added, the Planning and Development Department, proposed to hold the DDB meeting from May 9 to 23 as Governor N N Vohra will address joint session of the Legislature on May 25 marking start of the budget session and administrative machinery will get busy in the Legislature proceedings.
The Chief Minister had recently appointed 17 Cabinet Ministers as chairpersons of the DDBs while herself heading the Srinagar DDB.
Sources said the DDB meetings would finalize annual plan of the districts and developmental works to be taken up during current financial year of 2016-17, which would be identified among others by the public representatives including Members of Parliament (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and MLAs/MLCs, affiliated with those districts.
Pointing out that the DDBs were likely to get plan hike for current financial year of 2016-17 as compared to previous fiscal year of 2015-16 to give pace to the developmental works, sources said the Planning and Development Departments in consultations with the Finance Department would finalize percentage of increase in allocation to the DDBs, which could be substantial for Jammu and Srinagar, the twin rotational capital cities of the State.
The hike would also be good for rest of the districts depending upon the resources of expenditure including the funds spent last year on the developmental works.
Apart from Dr Nirmal Singh, a BJP veteran, who is chairman of Jammu and Samba districts, Works and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri, a senior PDP leader, heads Pulwama and Shopian DDBs. Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Abdul Haq Khan, also a PDP leader is head of twin DDBs Baramulla and Kulgam.
All other Ministers are chairpersons of one DDB only including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who heads Srinagar.
Significantly, Social Welfare Minister Sajjad Lone, who was upset with the portfolio and hasn’t been attending his office and Cabinet meetings, has also been named as chairpersons of Doda DDB. Earlier also, he has been heading the same DDB.
In fact, the Government had allocated same districts to the Cabinet Ministers to head the DDBs, which they had been heading during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed regime. The changes have been made only in the case of three Cabinet Ministers-Altaf Bukhari and Javaid Mustafa Mir (both PDP) and Choudhary Sukhnandan (BJP), who were dropped by Mehbooba Mufti.
As the PDP didn’t include any new Cabinet Minister, its leaders Veeri and Haq Khan were given charge of two districts each. Previously, only Dr Nirmal Singh used to head the two Boards of Jammu and Samba.
Mehbooba Mufti has replaced her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the chairperson of the DDB Srinagar.
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