Several Boards which fall under the administrative control of different Government Departments were rendered infructuous following Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act which came into effect from October 30, 2019. However, these Boards which are mainly under administrative control of Power, Commerce and Social Welfare Departments were reconstituted early this year. The issue had been deliberated upon in many meetings of the Committee of Secretaries headed by the Chief Secretary, the intent being early constituting of the Boards so that they could, in the right earnest, start functioning as per their mandate. The main aim, among other objectives, being that these Boards could compile and finalise their yearly accounts and present financial results and necessary data in time. This had, however, to be preceded or even followed by audits. The deadlines for the entire exercise too was fixed and advised accordingly.
It is observed that the matter has been taken quite casually and the deadline fixed by the Government was found by almost all the reconstituted Boards as being far from sufficient, for reasons not known. The Government giving credence to the difficulties created on account of corona- virus pandemic and taking associated factors in view, however, has now extended the deadline till ending August this year by which time, it is expected that not only regular meetings , at least as many as required under the set laws and guidelines, would be held but annual accounts would be finalised or closed without any delay. It is hard to comprehend that almost all UT Departments have faltered in their assigned duties and adopted unaffordable dilly dallying approach which resulted in the constituting of Boards getting stretched till ending February this year and that also resulted things done by only a few departments. All those departments which could not do it, reconstituted Boards only in March this year when departments were reallocated following administrative developments at higher levels.
Till date, on taking a holistic view of the important issue under reference, it is found that in most of the cases, reconstituted Boards have not convened any meetings till date, again on the pretext of the conditions created by the pandemic.
Now that ending August is the time by which all this exercise has to be undertaken complete in all aspects, it is hoped that the extension of this timeline will be not followed by granting of any additional one especially when to monitor with every concerned department, Additional Secretary of the Finance Department would be the “coordinating” authority. Statutorily, what is required further for the reconstituted Boards is the non negotiable characteristics of regularly periodically convene meetings to take important decisions. Needless to add, it assumes importance in the light of Administrative Secretaries of almost all key departments remaining members on the Boards giving an added advantage of taking collective decisions promptly. It may be noted that the deadline of convening the first of such meetings by the reconstituted Boards was February 15 of this year but that deadline was allowed to evaporate in the air. That of granting last extension to ending August this year, as a natural and an administrative corollary, was to be abided by and binding on all concerned. However, could an era of voluntary efforts by the UT departments dawn in and walking an extra step or an extra hour given chance though not on very regular basis, for example, in respect of issues as under reference in Jammu and Kashmir? However, changing times and imminent need to accept adaptability to demanding situations in the very near future shall automatically make it as a part of duty. It is better that casual approaches and dilly dallying tactics in Government departments were sooner than later started to be discouraged and considered perilous in numerous ways.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel