*Officers to be held responsible for denial of PCI aid
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 24: As the sword of losing Rs 2064 crore Special Plan Assistance (SPA) is hanging over J&K, the Planning and Development Department has set November 5 deadline for the District Development Commissioners and Heads of Departments for submission of project/scheme wise details in the prescribed format for being uploaded under CAS-MIS system.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Special Plan Assistance reflected under Projectization head amounting to Rs 2064 crore is one of the main components of the Plan resources for the Annual Plan 2013-14 and the State Government was required to submit the Action Plans under the Web-based programme CAS-MIS for obtaining the release of these funds.
Following directions of the Planning Commission of India in this regard, the Planning and Development Department of the State Government issued Circular No.1-PD of 2013 dated April 16, 2013, Circular No.4-PD dated July 1, 2013 and Circular No. 6-PD dated September 10, 2013 directing the District Development Commissioners and Heads of the Departments to strictly adhere to the directives of the Planning Commission of India and furnish project/scheme wise details in the prescribed format in order to ensure release of SPA funds.
In anticipation of strict compliance to the directives, the Planning and Development Department in the month of July authorized release of 50% of SPA (Projectization) despite the fact that Planning Commission of India had not released even single penny. Shockingly, majority of the Administrative Departments, District Development Commissioners and Heads of Departments did not pay serious attention towards circulars thereby landing the Planning Department in a peculiar situation.
As Planning Department is not in a position to further authorize release of remaining 50% of SPA (Projectization) in absence of release of any assistance from Planning Commission of India and sword of losing entire SPA assistance worth Rs 2064 crore is hanging over the State, the Principal Secretary, Planning and Development, B R Sharma yesterday had video-conferencing with all the District Development Commissioners and Heads of Departments and conveyed his displeasure over non-adherence to the repeated circulars.
“He conveyed to DDCs and Heads of Departments that deadline of November 5 has been fixed for submission of project/scheme wise details in the prescribed format for being uploaded under CAS-MIS system”, sources said, adding “B R Sharma even conveyed to them that any further delay in the submission of the requisite projects/scheme wise information will lead to non-release of funds by the Union Government and concerned Administrative Departments and DDCs will be held responsible for the same”.
In response to a question, sources said that under SPA major projects like bridges, roads, water supply schemes and building are constructed, adding “projects/schemes being taken up under SPA are required to be completed in a maximum of two or three years”.
“The necessity of seeking details on the prescribed format is aimed at ensuring that there is no escalation of cost of any project and their execution is monitored closely”, they further said, adding “the CAS-MAS system has been developed with the objective to make web-enabled automation of various processes and workflow involved in disbursement of SPA. The system has a three-tier structure involving processes at State level, Planning Commission level and Union Finance Ministry level”.
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