Development is a comprehensive and time consuming process; it is not just the questing of funding. Building requisite infrastructure essential for floating projects of macro and micro dimensions is the first requirement. It is a matter of careful planning based on need and availability options. We would wish that development of the State takes rapid strides to catch up with other states which are much ahead of us in development area. This cannot happy strictly according to our wishes and desires.
The Union Government has been paying special interest to J&K State knowing its geographical and physical constraints and also knowing that the State has gone through very difficult period of armed insurgency. It is this realization that made the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh to announce a special package called Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan (PMRP), of Rs 24,467 crores to be expended over a period of ten years. Part of the programme of reconstruction fell under Central sector and other part under State sector. Central sector specifically pertains to production of electricity and development of hydroelectric power generating projects that were given in the change of NHPC. The package carried with it broad guidelines for utilization of funds on projects that, too, were to be approved by the Planning Commission. Planning envisaged a total of 67 projects/schemes in four areas covering 11 sectors of economy. Floated in 2004 at the time of the first two -day visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of UPA-I, only 34 (a little over 50 per cent) have been completed even as the Re-construction Plan was due to complete 10 years during 2014. So far State sector received Rs 7214.50 crores while Rs 600 crores is due for release during current financial year. Of 67 projects/schemes started under the PMRP under both Central and State sectors, only 34 have been completed so far. Work was on at 28 other projects/schemes while in case of remaining five projects, the proposals were in the stage of the finalisation.
These schemes and projects have run their time limit of ten years and we find only 50 per cent of the projects have been completed. The Central Government has taken very liberal view of the matter and agreed to extend the time limit so that pending work is completed. But a corollary to this decision is the cost escalation from the allocated amount to approximately Rs 34,858.61 crores. A closer look at the case will show that cost escalation is a phenomenon that could not be stopped because it is related to the market price of material and labour. Therefore there is no justification either for becoming panicky or for raising the finger on the Government and its agencies. The point which needs to be emphasized is that the Centre is extending all possible assistance to the State so that it can come out of backwardness and poverty and take longer steps along the path of development. Significantly development has to be in all sectors and uniform. All the three regions of the State need to be catered according to their need. There has been coordination among the developmental agencies in the State and the Centre so that progress of the proposed projects remains uninterrupted. The Centre releases funds in instalments as that is the patent policy of fund providing agencies. This should not cause any difficulty or problem for the State. Generally if some delay happens in release of funds and it has to be taken in positive spirit.
There is visible progress in providing infrastructure in its various manifestations. Roads, bridges, culverts etc. are in a process of building and some have reached completion. Some major projects like four-lane of National Highway1, tunnelling and bridge building etc. have gained momentum. However, we can identify two sectors that are still lagging behind. Adequate and uninterrupted power supply is still a dream for the people of the State especially in far-flung areas. Secondly housing sector is dismally weak and unattended forcing people to raise structures in haphazard manner and thus spoil the ecology and environs of cities and towns. Water and sewerage facilities are also still far behind the actual need. We hope that in next half a decade while the funds under PMRP will continue to pour in, these essential services will be streamlined and all sections of people will have access to them. At the same time the projects in hand need to be completed before the expiry of the current financial year. Let us not take Centre’s frugality of extending the utilization date for becoming complacent about completion of projects in the pipeline.
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