When it comes to making up the mind, when it is the determination to do something above the average and when it comes to pursuing an objective vigorously, the result is that those projects in Jammu and Kashmir which were in a state of indefinitely suspended animation even to the extent of abandonment for a period from 5 to 25 years are now completed. Innumerable people in Jammu and Kashmir are poised now to reap the benefits of these projects. They are no less in number as 600 projects about which till 2018, all hopes of revival and virtual recuperation had been lost, were taken up under ”Revival of Languishing Projects” scheme and the results are before us. No scope for any amount of frugality in not complimenting the efforts of all those who got engaged in this stupendous task from the top in the administration down to the last one on the pedestal of making it happen.
The alibi of ”no funds” hence these projects were declared virtually dead and the amount of public money having been expended on them up to whichever stage they had managed to reach before exasperating to oblivion, rather slipping deep into the long bouts of coma, was resolved by formation of Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) in 2018. Either the expended funds rather the public money spent had to be allowed to go down the drain as a mere waste or it had to be retrieved by way of injecting more funds so that the concerned projects got erected firmly to operate to the benefit of the public. The Government, therefore, authorised JKIDFC to raise funds to the extent of Rs. 8000 crore from various financial institutions, even on consortium basis, to provide financial support to the languishing projects which, however, had jumped to cost escalation and heavy time overrun. The projects under reference being of immense public importance, an amount of Rs.775 crore, a whopping amount indeed, was pumped into them backed by proper monitoring and follow up and the results, at the end of the day, are very much encouraging and generating strength that nothing was impossible if the administration toned up its apparatus, found out means and ways to resolve tangles, impasses, humps and hurdles. Let us not mince any words that the same approach, the same treatment, the same alternatives could have been resorted to and duly employed by the previous popular Governments . Why they did not do so and why they allowed to be projected in a precariously helpless condition to deal with an issue of development and public benefit is a separate issue needing deep contemplation and even sincere introspection .
Pending and being in a state of utter uncertainty, some of these projects were ”pending” unbelievably for even more than two decades, others for more than 15 years while still others for 10 to 5 years. These developmental projects were related to extension and improvement of roads, construction and repairs of bridges, water supply schemes, and other utility oriented ones directly connected with the needs of the people and aiming at improving the quality of their lives. The encouraging features and the success of formation of the JKIDFC are that it has started generating its own revenues which would help it in not only servicing the debts raised but even in the repayments also. That is why , we very often lay stress on timely decision making process as lack of decisions making or any delay therein was directly related to cutting at the roots of fast development and progress. Inertia, not taking up challenging decisions fearful of the interplay of the risks involved, if any, are the bane of all the ills vis-a-vis good, prompt and responsive administration.
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