CS-led SLEC not performing as per Centre’s guidelines
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 9: Much to the disappointment of Union Ministry of Rural Develo-pment, State Government departments have failed to expedite implementation of projects in the villages identified by the Members of Parliament under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) scheme.
Moreover, State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC) headed by Chief Secretary, which has the mandate to identify the problems and sort them about, is not performing as per the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry for Development of Adarsh Grams.
The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11, 2014—the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan with the goal to ensure development of three Adarsh Grams by each Member of Parliament by March 2019. Thereafter, five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) would be selected and developed by 2024.
The scheme is unique and transformative as it has a holistic approach towards development. It envisages integrated development of the selected villages across multiple areas such as agriculture, health, education, sanitation, environment and livelihoods etc.
Though Members of Parliament from the State identified Gram Panchayats to be developed under SAGY yet concerned departments of the State Government have failed to expedite implementation of projects identified under Village Development Plans.
As per the official data, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, a total of 817 projects were planned to be executed in 14 Gram Panchayats identified in Phase-I and Phase-II of the scheme but only 301 works have been completed so far while as 115 works are still under execution. However, work on rest of the 516 works has yet not been started.
A total of 10 Gram Panchayats were identified by the Members of Parliament from Jammu and Kashmir under Phase-I and under Village Development Plans 746 works were proposed for execution in these Gram Panchayats. However, only 298 works have been completed till date and 81 are still under progress.
Similarly, under Phase -II four Gram Panchayats were identified by the Members of Parliament and under Village Development Plan 71 works were proposed for execution in these Gram Panchayats. However, only 3 projects have been completed till date and 34 are still under progress. Work on rest of the projects has yet not been started.
“These figures clearly reveal that concerned departments of the State Government have failed to give necessary impetus to the execution of the projects proposed under Village Development Plans”, sources said, adding the State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC), which has the mandate to identify the problems and sort them out for expeditious completion of works, has also failed to perform its duty.
The SLEC headed by Chief Secretary was constituted vide Government Order No.88-GAD of 2015 dated January 22, 2015 but it has rarely performed its duty as enshrined in the guidelines of the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana scheme, sources said while disclosing that during the past quite long time the Empowered Committee has not even met although it is supposed to meet once in a quarter to oversee progress on the Village Development Plans.
“It seems that framing of State Level Empowered Committee was just an eye-wash otherwise there was no justification behind not convening its meetings strictly as per the time-frame fixed by the Union Ministry of Rural Development”, sources remarked.
Taking serious note of slow pace of development of Adarsh Grams, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has directed the State to ensure that concerned agencies expedite the implementation of the projects proposed under Village Development Plans of the SAGY Gram Panchayats.
“In order to ensure that State agencies act as per the directives, the Ministry has also issued instructions for regularly updating the progress in the SAGY portal”, sources said, adding “the State has also been asked to review the progress of implementation of SAGY at the State and district level after regular intervals to timely achieve the objectives behind the ambitious scheme of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
It is pertinent to mention here that State Level Empowered Committee is supposed to supplement the SAGY guidelines and issue State specific instructions which take into account different schemes; review Village Development Plans from across constituencies and suggest changes, if required to ensure that the key outputs are achieved within the stipulated timelines; identify bottlenecks and the technical and administrative support required and issue necessary instructions from time to time; develop a time table for exposure visits to the model villages and design a State level plan for dissemination of best practices.
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