Rs 6910 cr ceiling for Jammu province distts, Rs 5678 cr for Valley
Reasi, Baramulla, Rajouri, Anantnag to get maximum funds
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 21: The overall plan size of the districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the financial year 2021-22 will be around Rs 12600 crore and the Government has fixed ceiling with much needed focus on those districts which are still lagging behind in the development.
Of the overall plan size, the districts of Jammu province will get Rs 6910 crore while as an amount of Rs 5678 crore has been fixed for the districts of Kashmir valley. This includes UT District Capex Component, Loan, UT Share of Loan, funds under Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Matching Share of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
The amount also includes PRI grant of Rs 23.30 lakh per Panchayat, BDC grant of Rs 25 lakh per Block, DDC grant at the rate of Rs 1000 lakh per district, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“After detailed exercise and critical analysis of the developmental status of the districts, the Government has worked out overall District Plan size for the financial year 2021-22 at Rs 12599.33 crore”, they disclosed.
The resources of funding District Plans will be balance available with Panchayats from earlier years, funding out of UT budget, Centrally Sponsored Schemes including matching share, Negotiated Loans, funds being made available to the Block Development Councils out of UT budget, funds being made available to District Development Councils out of UT budget and funds being made available to Panchayats out of ULB/PRI Grants.
“It has been a normal practice in Jammu and Kashmir to treat only the UT component as a District Plan ignoring the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, which is completely incorrect as the major source of funding is Centrally Sponsored Schemes and where these relate to functions assigned to the local bodies”, sources further said, adding “the Finance Department has stressed that this has to be assimilated by the districts in their implementation process”.
The key Centrally Sponsored Schemes being part of District Plans are National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Mid Day Meal (MDM) and AIBP etc.
Disclosing that ceiling has been fixed with much needed focus on those districts which are still lagging behind in the development, sources informed that maximum ceiling of Rs 1125 crore has been fixed for Reasi district in Jammu province and Rs 1103 crore for Baramulla district in Kashmir valley. These districts are followed by Udhampur, Rajouri and Anantnag as far as maximum District Plan ceiling is concerned.
The ceiling of Rs 934 crore has been fixed for Udhampur, Rs 918 crore for Rajouri and Rs 884 crore for Anantnag. The District Plan size for the Baramulla will be Rs 789 crore while as the same for Doda district will be Rs 759 crore.
As far as other districts of Jammu province are concerned, Jammu will get Rs 693 crore, Samba Rs 333 crore, Kathua Rs 618 crore, Kishtwar Rs 620 crore, Ramban Rs 310 crore and Poonch Rs 600 crore.
About other districts of Kashmir valley, sources informed that ceiling of Rs 129 crore has been fixed for Srinagar district, Rs 185 crore for Ganderbal, Rs 538 crore for Kulgam, Rs 408 crore for Pulwama, Rs 334 crore for Shopian, Rs 529 crore for Bandipora and Rs 779 for Kupwara.
Sources further informed that the focus of the District Development Plans will be on those projects that have high visibility/high impact and high implementability. “Instructions have been issued that the projects which don’t have adequate preparedness for implementation should not be taken up”, they added.
Moreover, every district will develop a dash board for indicating the status of the projects implemented and put the information in the public domain. “Every district will be assigned Senior Secretary who will mentor the Deputy Commissioners and District Functionaries to achieve the outcome”, sources said.
Instructions have also been issued for 100% physical verification of the projects by the District Statistical and Evaluation Officers (DSEOs). “It has also been directed that unless a Central sector or Centrally Sponsored Scheme has a specific guidelines regarding exempting from tendering, every single work will have to be executed through tendering only”, sources disclosed.
“For Panchayat level works, the tendering can be restricted to willing members of Panchayat and a suitable guidelines in this regard will be issued separately as assigning a work on pick and choose basis creates immense problems and incentivize favouritism”, they said.
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