ULBs across J&K fail to submit outcome of much-hyped “My Town, My Pride” Prog

Start preparations for B2V5, My Town My Pride: Govt directs RDD, H&UDD

No focus on performance appraisal on pattern of B2V
Clear picture on utilization of huge funds yet to emerge

Mohinder Verma

JAMMU, July 1: The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have failed to submit outcome of the much-hyped “My Town, My Pride” initiative of the Government to the Housing and Urban Development Department as a result of which performance appraisal on the pattern of Back to Village (B2V) Programme could not be conducted till date.
Moreover, there is no clear picture about the effective utilization of crores of rupees which were kept at the disposal of the Urban Local Bodies as part of this special initiative.
On October 11, 2020, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, while taking performance appraisal of Back to Village-3 and discussing future plan, announced “My Town, My Pride” initiative for the Municipalities and informed that this will be like Back to Village for providing doorstep delivery of different Government agencies and to identify structural issues firsthand.
“The aim of the initiative is to empower the public and ensure on spot redressal of their grievances and issues and the officers shall assess the ground situation of the allotted ULB vis-à-vis perception of the local public, data provided by the different departments, inputs shared by the ULB / prominent citizens and share his own observations”, the Lieutenant Governor had further announced.
Within few days of Lieutenant Governor’s announcement, the then Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam reviewed the preparations for “My Town, My Pride” and stated that this initiative will include closer review of ULBs functioning, besides taking up mobilisation of funds toward developmental activities in addition to the public outreach.
For the purpose of providing a mega push to the developmental activities an amount of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore was announced in favour of each Municipal Committee, Municipal Council, and Municipal Corporation respectively.
Accordingly, “My Town, My Pride” programme was conducted by all the Urban Local Bodies on October 19 and 20, 2020 and Lieutenant Governor, Chief Secretary and other top ranking officers of the J&K UT administration visited areas falling under the jurisdiction of Municipal Committees, Municipal Councils and Municipal Corporations.
“During their visits, the people residing within the jurisdictions of the Urban Local Bodies raised several issues particularly those relating to the development of their respective areas and they were assured by the visiting bureaucrats that their requirements would be met with by the ULBs”, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “even several developmental works were announced by the visiting officers after considering the demands of the people”.
Despite lapse of several months, neither the Urban Local Bodies furnished the results of the “My Village, My Pride” to the Housing and Urban Development Department not the latter tried to ascertain the same as a result of which performance appraisal on the pattern of Back to Village could not be conducted till date, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
The Housing and Urban Development Department was supposed to come up with performance report of “My Village, My Pride” initiative on the pattern of Finance and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Departments, which have even put in public domain the pictorial compendium of the works identified during B2V and completed by different agencies, sources further said.
To ascertain the success of any special initiative of the Government it is imperative to obtain feedback from the concerned agencies so that future strategy could be chalked out but in respect of “My Village, My Pride” no such attempt has been made despite lapse of several months.
When contacted, an officer of the Housing and Urban Development Department, while wishing anonymity, admitted that Urban Local Bodies have not furnished outcome of the special initiative and said, “it is a fact that performance appraisal is needed to chalk out future strategy”.
“In the absence of formal reports from the Urban Local Bodies, it is also not known how the funds released as part of My Village, My Pride initiative have been utilized”, sources said, adding “the Housing and Urban Development Department is required to seek reports from the Municipal Corporations, Municipal Committees and Councils through the Directorates of Urban Local Bodies”.