The Central Government had constituted a Special Task Force (STF) for Jammu region on October 13, 2010 with the term of reference of examining the allocations in terms of infrastructure needs and make suitable recommendations to overcome the deficiencies. The announcement did create a sense of satisfaction among the people of Jammu region that they were not being neglected or discriminated against as far as all round development of the State was concerned. Consequently, a member of the Union Planning Commission was assigned the duty of conducting a survey of the region. He was asked to submit a report that dealt with prioritizing the requirements of different districts or tehsils of Jammu region. Accordingly, the tasks were identified and the process was initiated. Three years have gone by and the ground situation is that most of the identified projects are either not started at all or if started are moving at a snail’s pace. This has shattered the confidence of the people of entire Jammu region. One of the unfortunate reasons for delay or deferment of the tasks is interference by political leadership who, unmindful of overall requirements of the district or the tehsil, are more interested in their constituencies only. The mini-Secretariats proposed for Rajouri, Poonch and Mendhar, for instance, are in a limbo just because there is dispute either on the land to be acquired or the site where the complex is to come up. Despite release of 4 crore rupees no progress is visible on the project of Solid Waste Management in Udhampur. For Disaster Management Complex in the same district more than 15 crore rupees have been sanctioned but nothing is visible on the ground. No different is the position of Katra Water Supply Project or land acquisition for Chenab House in Doda. How ironical that on one hand we raise hue and cry that ours is a hilly state and our rural areas are backward in more than one way and that we need special projects to remove poverty, deprivation and inaccessibility of the people in those regions. But on the other hand even when projects are approved, money is sanctioned and released, projects meant to alleviate the backwardness of the people are either not initiated or left to negligence.
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