 Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 25: Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Thursday constituted district-level Nodal Committees to monitor sector-wise progress of vital schemes integrated into the newly-introduced Capital Expenditure Plans.
He said with developmental spending hiked this year, there is an urgent need to build capacities to spend the funds. "The issue is not of availability of resources but the capacity to spend the money allocated to us in entirety."
The Chief Minister gave this direction while chairing the District Development Board meetings (DDB) of Pulwama and Shopian districts, today, an official statement said this evening.
While Rs 116.75 Crore Annual Plan for Pulwama district has been approved, a Capital Plan outlay of Rs 85.05 Crore for District Shopian was passed in the Board meeting.
The Nodal Committees constituted by the Chief Minister will be headed by Chairman DDB and will have District Development Commissioner, CEO (Education), Chief Medical Officer and Chief Planning Officer or District Statistical Evaluation Officer (in case of Central-Sponsored Schemes) as Members.
Placing high priority on spending every penny allocated in the revised Capital Plans, Mufti Sayeed said very little progress has been made in sourcing institutional finance, which is part of the overall developmental plan of the State.
Responding to the demands of the Legislators, the Chief Minister announced several decisions related to improvement of roads and bridges damaged in floods, augmenting power supply by enhancing capacities of power receiving stations, tapping tourism potential of unexplored destinations in the twin districts and augmenting several water supply schemes.
In order to hone technical skills of youth to enhance their employability, the Chief Minister announced setting up of ITI at Wachi, in Shopian district.
The Chairmen of DDBs, in their remarks, hailed the Chief Minister for chairing all the District Development Board Meetings and evincing keen interest in the development of the State.
Mehbooba Mufti, in her remarks, stressed upon bringing about a positive change on the ground so that people at the grassroots level are benefited by having access to basic amenities and social sector schemes. "While planning is very important, the results lie in implementation of what is said and discussed in the Board meetings," she stated.
Also present in the meeting were Principal Secretary, Planning, B. R. Sharma, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Asgar Hassan Samoon, Commissioner / Secretary, Health & Medical Education, Dr. M. K. Bhandari, Commissioner / Secretary, School Education, Shaleen Kabra, Secretary, PHE, I&FC, Pervez Malik, Secretary to the Chief Minister, M. H. Malik, besides Divisional Heads, Deputy Commissioners of Pulwama and Shopian and Sectoral Officers of the two districts. |
