Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 5: In a significant decision to monitor developmental works approved by the District Development Boards (DDBs) in just concluded meetings of the Boards, all of which were chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed himself, the State Government has decided that Chairpersons of the Boards would hold review of the developmental schemes and projects after every three months while a high level Committee of the Government officers headed by the District Development Commissioners (DDCs) would monitor progress on works regularly and brief the Chairperson on progress of the works every month.
“This has been done to ensure that works approved in the DDB meetings of 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir were not only undertaken well in time but completed within the stipulated period. The DDCs headed Committees would brief on pace of works, or any bottlenecks, every month to the Chairman of the Board while the Chairperson would himself review the works after every three months,’’ official sources told the Excelsior.
They said the new mechanism would ensure that sanctity of the works approved in the DDBs, which were described by the Chief Minister as mini-Legislatures, was maintained at all costs.
“A direction has gone to all Administrative Secretaries and the DDCs to take up developmental works strictly as per approval of the DDBs, start work well in time and ensure their completion within the stipulated period. A directive has also been sent to the concerned authorities that deadline of the works, which were already under execution or which were being taken up according to approval given in the DDBs, was maintained at all costs,’’ sources said.
The DDCs headed Committees will comprise Executive Engineers of Works Department, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control and district level officers of all major departments, who would sit once in a month, review progress on the works approved in the DDBs or those already going on and inform the DDB chairpersons about their progress.
“The DDCs would brief the Chairpersons about any major hurdle cropping up in the developmental schemes and projects, which is beyond their competence, for immediate solution so that the works didn’t remain pending for long time,’’ sources said.
The DDB chairpersons, who happened to be 19 Cabinet Ministers including Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, would hold review of the works approved in the DDBs after every three months.
“This means that the DDB works would be reviewed three times in a financial year. As one quarter of the financial year has already passed, three quarters were still left during which the DDB Chairpersons would review the works in their districts thrice,’’ sources said, adding that this would give impetus to the works and make the executing agencies more accountable.
Earlier, the DDB decisions used to be reviewed only once and that too at the close end of the financial year i.e. February-March.
Sources said the Government has made it clear to the DDB chairpersons, the Administrative Secretaries and the DDCs that there was no dearth of funds for developmental works as was being made out from certain quarters but the problem was that of spending and submission of utilization certificates.
“The State has enough Plan for developmental works, funding from the international banks like ADB, NABARD etc and Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The problem is not that of funds but their proper and adequate utilization,’’ sources said, adding the sooner the funds are utilized in proper manner, the more they would pour in from the Centre and other agencies.
The Government has expressed confidence that new mechanism put in place on regular monitoring of the DDB decisions and developmental works would go long way in expediting the development works and ensure implementation of the decisions taken in the Board meetings.
It may be mentioned here that the DDB meetings of 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir (10 each in the two regions) had concluded yesterday. The Chief Minister had himself presided over the meetings. Leh and Kargil, the two other districts of the State didn’t have the DDBs as they have their own Autonomous Hill Development Councils.
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