Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 17: Financial Commissioner Finance, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today held a review meeting of non-initiated projects to be completed under languishing category by J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC).
On the occasion Dr Mehta asked the concerned departments to commence preferring bills of these sponsored projects from the end of this month.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education, Talat Parvez Rohella; Commissioner Secretary Floriculture, Sheikh Fayaz; Executive Officer, JKIDFC, Shamim Ahmad Wani; Director Finance, Showkat Ahmad; Deputy Director Finance, Shafat Ahmad Yehya and representatives of all other concerned departments.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma and Jammu based officers participated in the meeting through the video conferencing.
Dr Mehta, who is also Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the Corporation directed the officers to prefer bills of projects having the necessary Administrative Approval (AA) and Technical Sanction (TS) only. He asked them to complete these requisite formalities within 15 days.
He also asked the officers to conduct a separate meeting in coming days with the departments having dismal performance. He underscored the need of inculcating work ethics at every level so that projects are completed within the prescribed timeframe as per the determined quality standards.
Dr Mehta reviewed department wise progress of these projects. He asked from each representative of the department about the possible date of initiation and fixed deadline against each of reviewed project. He directed the departments to initiate raising bills from the end of this month.
It was given in the meeting that 797 projects undertaken by different departments were yet non-initiated on the IT based platform of the Corporation. The departments gave the status of each of the project undertaken by them besides reasons of delay also. They further assured the Chairman that all the hiccups have been sorted out and uploading of these projects would be initiated on the IMS portal of the Corporation before the end of this month.
The meeting further discussed that out of 797 projects 318 belongs to Jal Shakti Department, 142 to Public Works Department, 74 to Power Development Department, 54 to I&C, 50 to School Education Department, 30 to YSS, 26 to Higher Education Department, 21 to H&UDD, 16 to H&ME, 19 to Technical Education Department, 13 to I&FC with rest of the departments having a couple or three each.
The cumulative cost of these 797 projects is Rs 2580.90 crores. All of these projects are high impact ones having immense public utility and once completed will close the gap in dearth of infrastructure on the developmental landscape of the UT of J&K.