Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 6: Though monitoring is an important tool in the planning and development sector yet the prevailing mechanism of assessing the physical progress of projects has failed to yield the desired results because of varied reasons including lack of coordination between the concerned agencies. Due to this, reports of nearly 1500 projects identified for physical verification during the current financial year have not been received in the Planning Department despite lapse of several months.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that under each and every Centrally Sponsored Scheme monitoring of the projects is mandatory so as to assess the financial and physical progress periodically. Similarly, the State Government is supposed to follow this mechanism in respect of projects being executed under State Budget.
The objective behind this mechanism is to ensure that the findings are timely shared with the concerned departments for initiating appropriate remedial measures and for completion of the projects as per the fixed parameters and within the stipulated time-frame.
Till last year, the State Government was getting third party monitoring conducted through NABCONS-a subsidiary of NABARD but thereafter the practice was suddenly stopped and it was decided that the monitoring will be conducted through officers of the Planning Department, Department of Economics and Statistics and Additional District Development Commissioners (ADDCs).
During the current year, around 1500 projects of different nature under implementation across the State were identified for third party monitoring and accordingly these projects were assigned to Regional Joint Directors of Economics and Statistics Department, Additional District Development Commissioners and District Statistics and Evaluation Officers (DSEOs).
However, despite lapse of several months reports in respect of majority of these projects have not been received in the Project Appraisal and Monitoring Division of the Department of Planning, Development and Monitoring, sources informed, adding “no doubt third party monitoring of such a large number of projects is a daunting task but what would be the fun of identifying and allotting projects for monitoring in a particular year if the reports are not to be furnished during that particular year”.
“The Additional District Development Commissioners have been burdened with several other works as such they are finding it difficult to spare time to conduct monitoring of the projects”, sources said, adding “the District Statistics and Evaluation Officers have not been provided mobility facilities especially for carrying out physical verification of the projects”. Moreover, the posts of District Statistics and Evaluation Officers have also been lying vacant in some districts of the State.
Finding some flaws in the existing mechanism of monitoring of projects, sources said that both ADDCs and District Statistics and Evaluation Officers are non-technical persons and they cannot check the quality aspect of the projects. “They can at best check the physical aspects of the projects but assessing quality of work is not that easy for them”, they added.
On the other side, the NABCONS have a team of experts of different fields and it is very convenient for them to look into all the aspects of any developmental project. “If there were certain issues with NABCONS the State Government should have attempted to resolve the same instead of bringing an end to the practice of conducting third party monitoring through this agency”, sources said.
When contacted, Director Project Appraisal and Project Monitoring Division of the Department of Planning, Development and Monitoring A K Gandotra refused to share information vis-à-vis progress achieved in monitoring of projects assigned to the ADDCs and DSEOs during the current year. “You can seek this information from Director Centrally Sponsored Schemes”, he added.
However, Director Centrally Sponsored Schemes said that he has not been furnished any information vis-à-vis outcome of the physical verification of the projects by the ADDCs and DSEOs.
The other officers dealing with this aspect in the Project Appraisal and Project Monitoring Division confirmed that reports/findings in respect of all those projects which were assigned during the current year have not been received till date.
“What to talk of projects assigned during the current year we are still awaiting findings in respect of projects allotted during the last financial year”, they said on the condition of anonymity.
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