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| Messy tale of poor fund utilisation in J&K | | |
What a mess ?Out of Rs.31,000 crores sanctioned under the Prime Minister's reconstruction Programme in 2004 not more than Rs.8,000 crores have been spent so far.In fact for first four years or so only Rs.6,000 crores had been spent under the programme and it was during the last 15 months that Rs.2,000 crores have been spent.Different versions are given when one tries to find out the reasons for the tardy utilisation of funds under the programme. If one tries to seek state Government version one will be told that delay in the release of funds by the central Government has slowed the utilisation of funds and the progress in completion of various projects.But those monitoring the development activities from Delhi say that when the utilisation reports on the funds released earlier are not made available to the central Government release of funds is supended.Others attribute poor utilisation of funds to the vagaries of weather.They explain that as far as the
Kashmir valley and Ladakh region,besides some hilly areas in Doda,Poonch and Rajouri districts,are concerned the working season is usually very small.At times early snow or prolonged spell of rains force the executing agencies to slow down implementation of various development projects.Well experts from the state and from Delhi need to sit together for evolving a mechanism which would ensure proper utilisation of funds allocated for development of roads,water supply,irrigation,flood control,and for resolving the problem of unemployment in the state.Some experts favour that whenever and wherever weather conditions are favourable for executing development projects the work needs to be completed in double shifts so that on various projects work remained operation for 24 hours.Once this procedure was adopted possibilities of seeking projects completed ahead of stipulated time.There is need for setting up atleast two teams,comprising experts from the st ate
and the centre,for monitoring the pace of progress of each development project.One team be asked to take care of the Jammu region and the other about the Kashmir valley.Whenever and whereever the teams find some problem in the execution of the work speedy remedial measures need to be evolved so that there was no delay in the completion of the projects.Experts say that during the last 20 years both the state and the central Governments have formulated series of plans regarding increasing job avenues,on the development of roads,drinking water and electricity supply,on upgradation of health services.Many plans have been framed for the development in the sectors of education,agriculture and industry but not even 25 per cent of these plans have been implementged.The result is continued poverty,unemployment and multi-dimensional problems being faced by the people of the state.A mechanism needs to be evolved so that there was no room for delay in the release
of funds by the central Government and in case the delay was justified because of certain lacuna those hurdles need to be removed.The state and the central Government should realise that they cannot win the hearts of people by showing them big development projects on the screen.How can the Government expect peoples' support when the same people suffer because of acute shortage of drinking water,electricity ? How can the Government expect support from the unemployed youth when they find job avenues very meagre ?Above all the centre and the state Government need to find out the person or the circumstances responsible for the poor utilisation of the funds under Prime Minister's reconstruction programme.Once this exercise was done the Government could penalise person or persons responsible for the tardy utilisation of funds or if some circumstances had been responsible the situation could be improved.
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