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| SFC implementation goes topsy-turvy, Mantris to prepare fresh report | | 'Govt goes on report making spree' | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, July 15: Habitual of delaying implementation of various reports and relaying heavily on advice of traditional IAS Babus, State Government has now directed Ministers of ruling coalition to prepare recommendatory draft suggesting route to be adopted for implementation of Jammu and Kashmir State Finance Commission (JKSFC) report.
Sources affirmed that the direction has come in the wake of advice given by select group of bureaucrats to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah not to confuse academic exercise of academician Mehmood-ur-Rehman with administrative decisions and perspective Government planning. Omar being Planning Minister of NC-Congress coalition Government went by the advice of his coterie and asked the Finance Department to forward recommendations of the commission to all the concerned administrative departments for detailed analysis and to come up with the reports detailing the steps required to be taken for the implementation of the recommendations.
The advice was followed in letter and spirit. Administrative departments initially took the issue casually and when pressed hard asked the Junior KAS officers serving at various positions in their respective departments to study the reports and come up with requisite rejoinders. Senior KAS officers told Early Times that in few cases, some HODs did take interest in preparing rejoinders but in most of the cases, job was done by juniors.
The rejoinder reports over the report of State Finance Commission (SFC) were then submitted to Planning and Development Department which instead of considering the reports at its end forwarded them to Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted vide Cabinet Decision No: 178/22/2011 dated 30-09-2011 through Govt. order no. 578-GAD of 2012 Dated 25-05-2012. The group of Ministers constituted is headed by Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather and includes Minister concerned to which the recommendations of the SFC pertain or concerned Ministers in case nature of recommendations is overlapping and Minister of State for Planning and Development Dr. Manohar Lal.
Inclusion of Finance Minister seems misplaced since the SFC report has more to with the Planning and Development Department. However, it has been learnt reliably that Chief Minister's Advisors wanted the Planning Minister to be kept outside the purview of this committee. Relevance of the committee can be understood from the fact that Finance Minister has been given MoS Planning Dr. Manohar Lal as member.
Dr. Manohar Lal is not only a junior Minister but has not been handling the Planning Department directly. If the insiders are to be believed, he is merely signatory to whatever HoD of Planning and Development Department writes. Government on its part said that since there is every possibility of reports of different departments getting overlapped on several recommendations of the SFC, it was found in imperative to have harmonious view of the 'rejoinder' reports of all the concerned departments at a single platform.
GoM, which essentially means Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, has been given the mandate to either make recommendations directly to the Cabinet or set up an expert group for in-depth examination of the proposals emanating from various administrative departments before placing the matter in the cabinet for approval.
Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather is the Chairman of the Group of Ministers while as Minister concerned to which recommendations of the SFC pertain or the concerned Ministers in case the nature of recommendations is overlapping and Minister of State for Planning and Development are the members of GoM.
The question here which experts are asking pertinently is that when the Government should have focused entire attention on implementation of report, it has resorted to report and rejoinder writing. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah despite being Planning Minister is not interested in getting the SFC report implemented in toto, maintain insiders. They question logic of getting report reviewed from those new to administrative planning.
Headed by Dr. Mehmood-ur-Rehman, former Home Commissioner of the State and ex-Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia University, the State Finance Commission was constituted in the year 2006 to look into regional imbalance or discrimination in the allotment of funds with any region or sub-region of the State and suggest corrective measures for equitable development. Commission submitted its report to the Government in November 2010 after a delay of more than four years. |
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