Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 17: Taking serious note of non-adherence to its repeated directives issued during the past over one year, the Union Government has categorically told the J&K Government to either submit the Utilization Certificates of Rs 61 crore provided under Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme or refund the entire amount immediately. Moreover, it has been made clear that further disobedience will have adverse impact on releases under other schemes.
Under BRGF Programme, which is an area development intervention aimed at promoting decentralized planning and development through yearly untied development and capacity building grants, an amount of Rs 225.16 crore was released to Jammu and Kashmir for utilization in five districts.
These five districts namely Doda, Kishtwar, Kupwara, Poonch and Ramban were selected for funding under this programme keeping in view extreme backwardness of many of their areas as compared to other parts of the State.
Out of total release of Rs 225.16 crore, an amount of Rs 214.32 crore was in the shape of development grant and Rs 10.84 crore were meant for capacity building component. As against total release of Rs 225.16 crore, the utilization till March 31, 2015 was to the tune of Rs 161.86 crore and the utilization till May 12, 2016 was to the tune of Rs 163.50 crore.
The unspent balance as on May 12, 2016 is to the tune of Rs 61.66 crore, which includes Rs 57.16 crore meant for development and Rs 4.50 crore for capacity building.
As the BRGF Programme was delinked from budgetary support of the Central Government with effect from the financial year 2015-16, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj had vide communication dated March 12, 2015 conveyed this decision to the J&K Government with the direction to submit the Utilization Certificate of entire amount, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
Thereafter, the Ministry sent official communiqués to the J&K Government on July 16, 2015, October 30, 2015 and February 1, 2016 respectively but all fell on the deaf ears of the concerned authorities. This prompted the Union Ministry to strongly raise the issue with the Principal Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department of J&K during the review meeting held at Union Capital on February 15-16, 2016, sources informed.
However, despite lapse of over one year since the issuance of first communication by the Union Government containing information about delinking of BRGF Programme from budgetary support and its subsuming with Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana, Utilization Certificates of Rs 61.66 crore have not been submitted to the Union Panchayati Raj Ministry, sources said.
Now, the Joint Secretary of Union Ministry, Dr Dvijendra Kumar Sharma has sent fresh communication dated May 12, 2016 to the J&K Government expressing serious concern over inordinate delay in submission of UCs despite repeated reminders in the past.
Reiterating submission of Utilization Certificates without wastage of any more time, the Union Joint Secretary said, “in case of funds which are still lying unspent with the State for a considerable period of time, the same shall be refunded to the Ministry through a Demand Draft drawn in favour of Drawing and Disbursing Officer, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, New Delhi”.
“Any further non-compliance may lead to difficulties in transfer of funds for other schemes by the Ministry of Finance in future”, the communication reads.
Out of Rs 61.66 crore unspent balance as on May 12, 2016, an amount of Rs 13.71 crore is unspent in respect of Doda district, Rs 13.07 crore in case of Kishtwar district, Rs 13.36 crore in respect of Kupwara district and Rs 11.84 crore and Rs 5.18 crore respectively in respect of Ramban and Poonch districts.
“It is a matter of serious concern that five reminders of the Union Government have failed to bring the concerned authorities out of the deep slumber during the past over one year”, sources regretted, adding “instead of reacting promptly to the letters from the Union Ministries for developing good rapport, the concerned authorities of J&K are adopting dilly-dallying approach, which is considered as a major impediment in proper implementation of the Central schemes”.
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