Neither staff appointed nor developmental requirements assessed
*Slackness creates hurdles in achieving objectives behind move
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 7: Operationalization of several Development Authorities created for various towns of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with the approval of the Government has remained least priority for the Housing and Urban Development Department as neither the staff has been appointed nor process initiated to assess the developmental requirements of the areas kept under their jurisdiction.
The Section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, 1970, which deals with declaration of local area and constitution of Development Authority, states: “The Government may, by notification in the Government Gazette, declare any area to be local area for purposes of this Act and constitute therefore an authority to be called the Development Authority”.
The Section 4 of the Act read: “The Authority shall consist of 9 members including a Chairman, all of whom shall be appointed by the Government on such terms and conditions as the Government may specify” while as Section 5 provides for appointment of staff for smooth functioning of the Development Authority.
Few years back, there were Development Authorities only for Kathua, Udhampur and Katra etc as successive Government didn’t find it appropriate to create Development Authority for each town of Jammu and Kashmir especially in the light of the fact that these towns were already having Municipal Committees and Councils.
However, the Lieutenant Governor’s administration few months back created Development Authorities for Samba, Sunderbani, Banihal, Ramban, Reasi and Akhnoor in Jammu region and for several towns of Kashmir valley while exercising the powers conferred by the J&K Development Act, 1970. The Chief Secretary was made Chairman and Administrative Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department was nominated as Vice-Chairman of these Development Authorities.
Further, the areas over which these Development Authorities will have jurisdiction were also notified by the Housing and Urban Development Department so as to avoid confusion over the functioning of Development Authorities and Municipal Councils and Committees.
At that time, it was claimed by the Government particularly the Housing and Urban Development Department that the objects of the Authorities shall be to promote and secure the development of the local areas for which they have been constituted.
For this purpose the Authorities shall have the power to acquire, hold, manage and dispose of land and other property, to carry out building, engineering and other operations, to execute works in connection with supply of water and electricity, disposal of sewerage and other services and amenities and generally to do anything necessary or expedient for purposes of such development, the Government had further stated.
“However, till date none of these Development Authorities have been operationalized by the Housing and Urban Development Department as if merely by framing these bodies the objectives of the J&K Development Act are going to be achieved”, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “these Development Authorities are going to meet the fate of those which were framed several years back as their meetings were never convened by the concerned authorities”.
They further said, “unless these Authorities are operationalized and regular meetings are convened the developmental requirement of the areas under their jurisdiction cannot be assessed”, adding “the meetings of these Development Authorities can be convened only when Chief Secretary being Chairman spares some time, which is normal course is not possible because being head of bureaucracy he has numerous other duties to perform every day”.
“Moreover, no effort has been made till date to provide requisite staff to these Development Authorities. Even the Katra Development Authority and several other bodies which were created several years back are still crying for adequate manpower”, sources informed, adding “all these Development Authorities are required to prepare Master Plan for the areas under their jurisdiction so as to ensure their holistic and planned development”.
How the objectives behind the J&K Development Act and creation of Development Authorities can be achieved with such a slack approach remains a million dollar question.
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