Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 27: Noticing scant regard to the guidelines laid down by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, State Level Screening Committee headed by Chief Secretary today freezed the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) Plans of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts for the current financial year. Now, the Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department will review these Plans before seeking necessary corrective steps from the concerned District Development Commissioners so as to place the modified Plans before the Chief Secretary for approval.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that State Level Screening Committee, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar this afternoon, noticed deficiencies and violation of Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines in the Action Plan for the current financial year in respect of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts.
The Screening Committee met in order to review the progress achieved under the Annual Action Plan 2013-14 and approve the proposed Annual Action Plan for the current financial year.
In respect of Jammu district, the Screening Committee noticed that 45 new works each costing less than Rs 5 lakh were proposed in the BADP Action Plan for 2014-15 despite the fact that MHA guidelines clearly state that only those works having minimum cost of Rs 5 lakh should be taken up under BADP, sources informed.
Moreover, the authorities have proposed 137 new schemes under the Action Plan 2014-15 despite the fact that an amount of Rs 41 crore was still required to complete 113 ongoing works, they said.
As far as Kathua district BADP Plan is concerned, the Screening Committee discussed the communication of Kathua MLA, Charanjeet Singh sent to Chief Secretary mentioning that District Development Commissioner has not included works of two border villages despite his recommendations, sources said, adding “it was also noticed by the Screening Committee that several works of Kathua block have been proposed under BADP although the block doesn’t fall in the BADP category”.
Disclosing that 42 new works have been proposed in the Kathua district BADP Plan, sources said, “the Screening Committee was of the view that the DDC should have laid focus on 42 ongoing schemes, which still require Rs 12.47 crore for completion of works”, adding “the Chief Secretary asked the Principal Secretary Planning and Development Department to ascertain as to why the works of Block Kathua were proposed under the BADP”.
About the Rajouri BADP Plan, which was also freezed by the Screening Committee, sources said, “on one side the DDC Rajouri had not submitted the Plan in time and on the other side he had proposed more than 200 new works despite the fact that huge funds are required to complete the ongoing schemes”.
Taking serious note of non-adherence to the guidelines, the Chief Secretary asked the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that all ongoing works are completed on priority with no spill over, sources said, adding “he directed the Deputy Commissioners to take weekly review of the progress besides ensuring monitoring and efficient assessment and reporting of the work performance”.
He also issued directions for holding review meetings of BADP at State level on quarterly basis to give further impetus to the completion of the development projects under the Programme.
It is pertinent to mention here that Border Area Development Programme, a 100% Centrally sponsored programme, was started with the twin objectives of ensuring balanced development of sensitive border areas through adequate provision of infrastructural facilities and promotion of a sense of security amongst the local population.
Follow our WhatsApp channel