Move will make development faster: Mayor
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, May 11: Government of J&K today ordered delegation of powers to accord administrative approvals and technical sanctions for the works by Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) incurring expenditures to the tune of Rs. up to 20 crore.
In an order Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department, H. Rajesh Prasad fixed the limit of administrative approval up to Rs. 20 crore for Full Council; up to Rs. 10 crore for Mayor and Commissioner of JMC and SMC; up to Rs. 5 crore for Commissioner of Municipal Corporation and up to Rs. 3 crore for Joint Commissioner/ Superintending Engineer while for technical sanction Joint Commissioner/ Superintending Engineer were empowered for sanctioning an amount up to Rs. 1 crore.
When contacted JMC Commissioner, Rahul Yadav informed that earlier no powers of administrative approval for JMC and SMC were defined.
“So we sent a proposal to the concerned authorities in this regard last year as such powers were very much there with Municipal Councils and Committees of J&K as an Executive Officer (EO) of Municipal Council with its Chairman and full house of the Council were empowered to make administrative approvals,” he informed adding that the proposal of last year has now been conceded for JMC and SMC.
Yadav also said that financial powers should be there with the Urban Local Bodies for administrative approvals otherwise these bodies had to await government’s nod for everything.
“So far up to Rs. 5 crore, the Commissioner used to give approval and for administrative approval involving higher amounts, Principal Secretary was approached and proposals of more than Rs. 20 crore were sent to the government for approval,” the JMC Commissioner maintained.
He said: “Now up to Rs. 5 crore, approval can be given by the Commissioner, upto Rs. 10 crore, Mayor with Commissioner can do it and full house is required for the approval upto Rs. 20 crore and for the above amounts the power of approval still lies with the government.”
Yadav said that this development is very good one as otherwise for big projects the Corporations had to await government for approvals due to which projects got delayed.
The JMC Commissioner further said, now JMC can get many projects passed in general house meetings or get them passed through Mayor to expedite the works.
Mayor, Rajinder Sharma when contacted said that J&K Union Territory government is making all out efforts to reach out to the public through developmental activities.
“Everyone should get basic amenities and to intensify the pace of developmental activities, the government has revived the limits of administrative approvals to empower the Corporations (JMC and SMC) and make the process of administrative approval faster,” he further said.
Sharma also said that earlier files for administrative approval of Rs. 20 crore used to eat dust in Civil Secretariat and unnecessary delay was caused in developmental works but now the general house of JMC is empowered to approve such amounts.
“This is a very opportune time for J&K as the constitutional authority, political authority and administrative authority-all are moving in one direction to have faster decision making process,” he continued.
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