Jasrotia directs for show cause notice as maximum HoDs skip DDB meet

Nishikant Khajuria

UDHAMPUR, May 21:  Taking serious notice of absence of maximum Heads of the Departments in  Udhampur District Development Board meeting, which was held here today under the chairmanship of  Rajiv Jasrotia,  Minister for Forest, Ecology & Environment,   the Chair directed for  issuance of show cause notices to the absent officers.
As the participating MLAs refused to take part in discussion owing to absence of the maximum officers, Chairman Rajiv Jasrotia also directed that review meeting of the District Development Board be convened within 15 days so that the Legislators could highlight developmental issues and raise their queries in presence of all Heads of Departments.
Around 20  concerned officers were absent in the DDB meeting, which was attended by Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in PMO and Member Parliament Udhampur-Doda constituency;  Minister of State Ajay Nanda, MLA Udhampur Pawan Gupta, MLA Ramnagar R S Pathania, MLA Chenani Dina Nath Bhagat, Chairmen of various Advisory Boards and others.
The officers, who skipped the meeting, included Chief Engineer PWD, Chief Engineer PHE, Director School Education Jammu, Director RMSA, Director SSA, Director Rural Sanitation, Director Tourism, Director Agriculture, Director Floriculture, Director ICDS and others, official sources told the Excelsior.
Taking strong exception to the absence of maximum officers, MLA Udhampur Pawan Gupta and MLA Chenani Dina Nath Bhagat threatened to boycott the meeting but MLA Ramnagar R S Pathania persuaded the duo to allow passage of the DDB budget for avoiding delay in developmental works, sources said.
All the three MLAs of Udhampur district were also up in arms against non-implementation of the maximum decisions taken in earlier DDB meetings since 2012, sources added.
MLA Dina Nath Bhagat alleged that the plan vetted by him was not taken up in the DDB whereas the list of items presented in the meeting was not in his prior knowledge. MLA Pawan Gupta was also in conformity with Dina Nath Bhagat and both of them announced to boycott the meeting when MLA R S Pathania suggested that budget of the DDB be passed without discussion.
Alleging that besides absence of maximum HoDs, the officers present in today’s meeting were ill informed, Pathania further suggested that Part II of the DDB meeting be convened for discussion on the developmental issues in presence of all the concerned officers.
MLA Pawan Gupta alleged wrong presentation of budgets and inflated figures by the different department representatives in the DDB meeting. He also resented ‘unequal’ distribution of funds and sought to know the reason behind no additionalties to Udhampur district. “Even as we allowed passage of the DDB budget, the meeting was inconclusive and its second part will be held within 15 days as also announced by the Chairman,” the MLA added.
Dr Jitendra Singh suggested that a Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) be formulated for the District Development Board meetings to ensure participation of all the members besides concerned officers, who should be informed well in advance.
“In case of  urgent engagement of the concerned officers at somewhere else, either the date of meeting should be changed or priority be given to the DDB,” he said adding that the officers must do home work before taking part in such meetings  wherein priority programmes should be listed for maintaining sanctity of the DDB.
Taking cognizance of the sentiments of the MLAs and alleged non-seriousness on part of the concerned HoDs, who either skipped the meeting or were ill informed about the state of projects of own departments, Rajiv Jasrotia directed the Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Ravinder Kumar to issue show cause notices to the absent officers besides convening review meeting of the DDB within 15 days.
“Since the DDB meetings are scheduled by the Planning Department, there should be no overlapping of the engagements by the concerned officers, who have been asked to explain the reason behind their absence in the crucial meeting despite prior information,” Mr Jasrotia told the Excelsior.
He also confirmed that percentage of implemented decision of the earlier DDB meetings was very low while the officers were ill informed about the projects. “Mechanism should be evolved and we have to find out ways and means for ensuring that DDB meetings and its decisions are taken seriously,” he added.
The trouble erupted as soon as the District Development Commissioner finished his presentation on progress of departmental works and claimed that a number of departments were able to achieve 100 percent target.

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