*Proper planning, mgmt of resources remain distant dream
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 19: Yet another lofty announcement made by the PDP-BJP Coalition Government in the Budget is gathering dust in the official files during the past one year due to extreme non-seriousness on the part of Departments of Finance and PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control. Due to this, harnessing of abundant water resources in a planned manner and generating income for the State has remained a distant dream.
Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, while presenting Budget for the financial year 2016-17 in the Legislative Assembly in Srinagar on May 30, 2016 had stated that Government has made up its mind to establish Water Resources Department so as to fully harness and exploit abundant water resources.
At present, the water resources of the State are being managed by various departments. While Public Health Engineering Department looks after potable water, Housing and Urban Development Department is responsible for management of lakes and waterways including the Dal Lake. The flood management is the responsibility of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
“In order to bring synergy in the efforts of the State to fully harness abundant water resources, I propose creation of a Water Resources Department”, he had stated in the Budget speech, adding “the new department will be responsible for proper planning and management of all the water resources including lakes and rivers of the State”.
He had even gone to the extent of mentioning that for setting up this department an amount of Rs 2 crore has been earmarked. However, no seriousness has been shown towards this Budget announcement either by the Finance Department or by the Department of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“Not even single step has been initiated for setting up of Water Resources Department till date”, sources said, adding “it is a matter of concern that one year is not a sufficient period for the present dispensation to simply issue an order regarding establishment of new department, which otherwise was found to be the necessity in order to make better use of available water resources”.
They informed that before making this announcement no exercise was conducted by the Finance Department in consultation with the Department of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control about the organizational structure and functions and duties of the proposed department. “Even during the past one year this issue was never debated at any level thereby exhibiting non-seriousness on the part of both the concerned departments”, sources added.
Responding to a question, sources said that a detailed exercise was required to be conducted in order to give practical shape to the Budget announcement especially in the light of the fact that three departments have been handling the water resources of the State and their duties and functions are required to be re-defined for setting up of new department.
“Even the Government doesn’t find it appropriate to constitute a committee to deliberate on this aspect. Rather, it chose to remain mum on the announcement”, sources further said while questioning the rationale behind making lofty announcements in the Budget and then forgetting the same for years together. How the bureaucrats will take the Budget announcements seriously if there is no concern even from the Minister concerned, sources asked.
“There should be a special cell in the Government to ensure that there is proper and timely follow-up on the Budget announcements otherwise presenting Budget is nothing but a futile exercise”, they stressed.
It is pertinent to mention here that EXCELSIOR has carried several exclusive news-items highlighting the fate of the announcements made in the Budget by the PDP-BJP Coalition Government and this clearly indicates that Budget speech of the Finance Minister is being treated as trash.
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