When Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) was first floated years ago, it had invited criticism from sections of political punditry in the country, not for the spirit of the plan but for its operational aspect. Experts had expressed doubts that its implementation might get delayed or deferred owing to various administrative bottlenecks. That was a general view of the critics. But with the passage of time, some of the doubts then expressed by seasoned observers are coming true, at least in the case of J&K State. During his visit to the State in November 2004, the Prime Minister announced sanction of more than 42 crore rupees for Tourism Development Projects in the State under the PMRP. This was only a part of the entire plan and dealt with tourism in the State. Consequently 12 Development Authorities were created for the entire State with clear instructions about where and how the allotted funds were to be utilized in order to boost tourism infrastructure and tourist industry in the State. Funds were allotted to the concerned Authorities alongwith instructions of their proper utilization.
But utilization of the funds has not been to the expectation of sanctioning authorities. The one big lacuna in the implementation of the plan is that the Development Authorities have failed to submit Utilization Certificates (UC) to the authorities in New Delhi. The UC is certification by the Development Authority that such and such amount allocated for development of respective area has been properly utilized and the plan for which allocation was made has been brought to successful completion. But the ground situation has reflected that almost all Development Authorities in the State have failed to submit utilization certificates to proper authorities in time in New Delhi. Surprisingly not one or two but all of the 12 Development Authorities have failed to keep the promise and submit UCs. This shows that there is some glaring technical or administrative flaw in the implementation process that has become a hindrance in the way of these DAs submitting utilization certificates. As this is the case, naturally the Government should take cognizance of the situation and find out what and where is the hindrance and how can it be removed. Total amount about which utilization certificates are pending comes to whooping rupees 42 crore. Just take one Development Authority, namely Kokernag Development Authority, and we find a disappointing state of affairs. Kokernag Development Authority is on the top of the list of these 12 authorities as it has yet to submit Utilization Certificates of Rs 7.37 crore worth works. The UCs in respect of this development authority are pending for the project sanctioned during 2008-09 financial year. It has yet to submit UCs of Rs 5.35 crore worth two projects sanctioned in 2008-09, Rs 65.76 lakh project sanctioned in 2009-10 and Rs 1.36 crore worth two works sanctioned in 2011-12 financial year. The situation in respect of other cases like Kishtwar Development Authority or Bhadarwah Development Authority or Gulmarg Development Authority and etc. is in no way different. The question is this: Have funds been actually utilized or not? If not, why and if these are utilized, why has not the Utilization Certificate been issued by the executive authority? We do not want to jump at the conclusion that there has been misappropriation or embezzlement of funds, though ordinarily, people would be willing to infer like that. We feel that there is either irresponsibility or inefficiency that causes delay and procrastination of submission of utilization certificates. We learn that the State Tourism Minister, Jora did lot of legwork at Delhi to obtain maximum funding from the Planning Commission for development of tourist spots in the J&K. It is true that many new spots need to be explored and developed for tourism. But even after obtaining the funds, there is no actual progress on the ground, the Planning Commission will laugh at us and it will have hesitations in making frugal allocations in favour of State Tourism in future.
It is, therefore, strongly recommended that the Government take due notice of non-submission of utilization certificates by the authorities concerned and call them to explain what the hurdles in the way are. If some genuine difficulties are identified, these must be removed immediately. A State with vast potential for tourism cannot afford to let hard-found funds lapse and tourist spots remain hungry for want of adequate funds for development. It has to be impressed upon the Government that for development and beautification of tourist sites expert advice needs to be hired. In most tourist places in Kashmir haphazard development is coming up that does not increase the attraction of the tourists.
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