Excelsior Correspondent
PULWAMA, June 25: Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, today 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, he added”
The Chief Minister gave this direction while chairing the District Development Board meetings (DDB) of Pulwama and Shopian districts, here today.
Besides Minister for Horticulture, Haj & Auqaf, A. R. Veeri and Minister for Transport, A. G. Kohli, who are the Chairmen of District Development Boards of Pulwama and Shopian respectively, Minister for Finance & Culture, Dr. Haseeb A. Drabu, MP, Mehbooba Mufti and Legislators, Mohammad Khalil Bandh, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, Ajaz Ahmad and Showkat Hussain Ganaie also attended the meetings.
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 today.
The Nodal Committees constituted by the Chief Minister will be headed by Chairman DDB and will have District Development Commissioner, CEO, 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. “We have failed to avail the inbuilt subsidy component in several Government schemes like Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure Scheme, Backyard Poultry and those related to dairy production, which offer huge incentive to the beneficiaries,” he said and announced that from now on the Chairmen of all District Development Boards in the State will hold quarterly review meetings to monitor the progress achieved on such schemes.
Referring to the under-utilization of MNREGA in J&K and the steps required to broaden its scope, the Chief Minister stressed upon the Planning & Development Department to find out ways to link its labour component with other developmental schemes, in particular those in R&B and I&FC departments, where enough mandays can be guaranteed for unemployed rural youth.
The Chief Minister also passed instructions for setting up of two Model Health Institutes in every constituency of the State, which will have all the facilities to cater to the huge rush of people, especially those looking for maternity and child healthcare.
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.
Minister for Finance, who gave a brief overview of the new financing scheme, said the Government has moved forward from past practice of announcing a ritual 10% hike in previous year’s annual plans, which did not reflect the needs of the districts. “We have tried to assess the requirements based on ground realties, taking into consideration population, income, infrastructure, area and equalization of public services across districts while formulating Capital Expenditure Plans this year,” he explained.
Mehbooba Mufti 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.
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.
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