Centre expresses concern, asks for strict compliance
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 8: Monitoring implementation of 41 Centrally Sponsored Schemes is least priority for the Members of Parliament (MPs) from Jammu and Kashmir and majority of District Development Commissioners (DDCs) as they have failed to strictly adhere to the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Rural Development regarding District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) initiative.
As a large number of significant and ambitious schemes are being implemented for improvement of infrastructure and well-being of the people particularly in rural areas, the Union Ministry of Rural Development vide its communication dated June 27, 2016 ordered framing of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA) across the country to monitor the implementation of 41 Centrally Sponsored Schemes and to promote synergy and convergence for greater impact.
Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) representing the particular district was made Chairperson of DISHA and all Members of the State Legislative Assembly elected from the district were made members of Committee. Similarly, concerned District Development Commissioner was made Member Secretary and given the responsibility of convening meetings of DISHA as per the schedule fixed by the Union Ministry.
Though DISHA of each district is required to meet once in every quarter and at least four times in a year yet this schedule was not strictly adhered to by the Members of Parliament and majority of the District Development Commissioners in Jammu and Kashmir during 2017-18, official sources told EXCELSIOR while quoting the data of the Union Ministry of Rural Development shared with the concerned authorities of the State recently.
As per the schedule fixed by the Union Ministry, DISHA is required to meet in the third week of April, July, October and February every year to assess the status of implementation of 41 Centrally Sponsored Schemes and pass necessary instructions to the concerned agencies/ departments for gearing up the works.
As per this schedule, a total of 84 meetings of DISHA were required to be convened during 2017-18 in Jammu and Kashmir but actually only 3 meetings were held by the concerned Members of Parliament in blatant violation of guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, sources informed, adding even minutes of these three meetings were not fully uploaded on the web portal of the Union Ministry.
“In the guidelines provision has also been kept for holding more than four meetings in a year but what to talk of making use of this stipulation the Members of Parliament have even failed to adhere to basic schedule of holding quarterly meetings”, sources regretted.
Quoting the data of Union Ministry, they said that no DISHA meetings of Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, Budgam, Ganderbal, Jammu, Doda, Kishtwar, Kulgam, Kupwara, Leh, Pulwama, Rajouri, Srinagar and Shopian districts were convened during 2017-18 as such status of implementation of 41 Centrally Sponsored Schemes as well as bottlenecks could not be ascertained.
Expressing concern over non-adherence to the guidelines and schedule of meetings, the Union Ministry has issued directions for conducting DISHA meetings on quarterly basis regularly and uploading of minutes of meetings as and when conducted.
“To facilitate the effectiveness of DISHA meetings, a dashboard is being created for data driven monitoring of schemes up to village level”, the Ministry has conveyed to the State, adding “in order to ensure success of DISHA dashboard State needs to seed and link Local Government Directory up to village level with reference to associated programmes”.
The importance of DISHA platform can be gauged from the fact that it has been entrusted with the task of facilitating coordinated solution to remove constraints of any kind; resolve matters related to provision of land and space for faster roll out of priorities; identify issues for follow-up in Parliament and State Assembly for timely achievement of objectives; suggest mid-course corrections to address implementation constraints; look into complaints/ alleged irregularities in respect of the implementation of the programmes including wrong selection of beneficiaries, mis-appropriation of funds and recommend follow-up action.
Moreover, the DISHA is required to closely review the flow of funds, utilization and unspent balances under each scheme etc. “Due to non-convening of required number of meetings all these aspects have remained unnoticed”, sources remarked.
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