*No follow up action on Reasi, Kathua Boards’ decisions
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 18: The bureaucratic inertia is a major obstacle in District Development Boards (DDBs) acting as mini-legislatures and institutions of inclusivity in real sense as even for implementation of minor decisions involving not much expenditure but of immense public importance necessary follow-up action is not being initiated by the concerned officers.
While chairing District Development Board meeting of Reasi district on July 3, 2015, the then Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had described the DDBs as mini-legislatures and institutions of inclusivity and said that decisions taken at this platform shall have to be implemented in letter and spirit.
He had even stated that DDBs are the institutions of empowerment for the legislators as this well established institutional mechanism makes them part of the implementation process at the ground level. The then Chief Minister had even stressed upon the bureaucrats to leave no stone unturned so as to maintain the credibility and authority of the institution of DDB.
But instead of acting in this direction several bureaucrats have failed to come out of the inertia and the outcome of the same is that DDBs have failed to act as mini-legislatures in real sense. This can be gauged from the hanging fate of the decisions taken in the DDB meetings of Reasi and Kathua districts despite lapse of considerable period of time.
As per the information gathered by EXCELSIOR, there is no progress on six key decisions taken in Reasi District Development Board meeting last year despite the fact that the Board is again going to meet on May 20 to take more decisions in respect of development of the district and meeting aspirations of the people.
What would be the fate of new decisions to be taken in the DDB meeting on May 20 when earlier decisions are gathering dust in the files of the concerned departments remains a million dollar question before the Government.
It was decided that an industrial estate will be established at Reasi but the only progress that has taken place in this regard is identification of land. “The district administration after identifying the suitable land had referred the matter to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu for approval but despite lapse of several months no communication was received from the office of Divisional Commissioner”, sources said.
For enhancing the skills of the youth and training them in different trades in order to make them capable for obtaining employment in different sectors, the DDB had decided that a Skill Development Institute will be established at Gulabgarh and Industrial Training Institute at Mahore.
Notwithstanding the tall claims about laying focus on skill development, there is absolutely no progress on these two decisions.”The Directorate of Technical Education had taken up the matter with the Administrative Department but nothing has been heard from the appropriate quarters in the Civil Secretariat till date”, sources regretted.
Similar is the fate of decision vis-à-vis establishment of wind mills in Gool, Arnas. “The land transfer issue with NHPC is yet to be resolved in order to pave the way for installation of wind mills of 8 Mega Watt in two phases”, sources informed, adding “the fate of decisions relating to establishment of tourist resort at Daggan Top and augmentation of electric sub-station Reasi is also hanging in balance”.
As far as Kathua district is concerned, it was decided that world famous Basohli art would be promoted by way of initiating several measures, which otherwise have remained in the statements till date with no activity on ground.
“On the request of the Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, it was announced by the then Chief Minister that all Government brochures in future will carry photographs of Basohli art but the decision was dumped in the same meeting as this was not reflected in the minutes of meeting”, sources said, adding “in the absence of mention in the official record no follow up action could be taken in this regard till date”.
Similarly, it was decided that Mango villages would be developed in Kathua on the pattern of apple and apricot villages in the Kashmir valley. “Though the Horticulture Department prepared a Detailed Project Report in this regard but final approval is awaited from the concerned quarters”, sources informed.
In order to decongest town, the DDB had decided to develop a parking slot. However, when the decongestion will take place cannot be specified. “The process of shifting the offices from a complex at Mukherjee Chowk identified for the project is yet to be completed”, sources said, adding “following completion of this exercise further steps would be initiated by the Housing and Urban Development Department for establishment of parking slot, which is a time consuming process”.
“There are several other decisions on which although follow-up action was initiated but without any tangible result on ground”, sources rued.
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