*Against target of 1285 km road length, only 798 km completed
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 11: Taking serious note of poor implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has considerably reduced the annual allocation to the State under the scheme for the financial year 2014-15. As against allocation of whopping Rs 990 crore during the last financial year, the Ministry has indicated release of only Rs 355 crore during the current financial year.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that during the last financial year (2013-14), the Union Ministry of Rural Development had initially proposed allocation of Rs 732 crore to the State under PMGSY. However, after few months the annual allocation was revised and enhanced to Rs 990 crore in order to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir takes optimum benefit of the scheme for providing road connectivity to the unconnected habitations.
“The decision to enhance annual allocation by Rs 258 crore during 2012-13 financial year was also taken keeping in view the geographical condition of the State, which deprives numerous habitations of the road connectivity”, sources said.
However, much to the surprise of the Union Ministry, the implementation of the PMGSY in Jammu and Kashmir remained far from satisfaction prompting the top brass of the Ministry to dash several official communications to the top officers of the State expressing dismay over the slow pace of work, they said. Even Union Minister for Rural Development personally took up the poor implementation of the scheme with the Chief Minister, sources added.
“The dismal execution of this Centrally sponsored scheme in the State also came under the radar of Raj Bhavan with Governor, N N Vohra, in the month of June last year, seeking a comprehensive report from Chief Minister over the corrective measures initiated by the Government to overcome the bottlenecks hitting the scheme”, they said.
As delay in the execution of the works, improper monitoring, poor spending on creation and maintenance of assets and poor quality of works continue to hit the scheme, the Union Ministry has reduced the annual allocation of funds to the State to Rs 355 crore during the current financial year as against Rs 990 crore during the last financial year. This allocation is far less than the actual allocation of Rs 732 crore, which was initially decided by the Ministry during 2013-14 financial year.
“The indicative annual allocation of Rs 355 crore is based on the execution capacity of the State, value of balance projects in hand, availability of unspent funds and absorption capacity”, said the Union Ministry’s official communiqué to J&K Government.
“This allocation can be altered during the current year keeping in view the pace of actual expenditure by the State and funds available, the absorption capacity of the State and any enhancement by deploying more PIUs (increasing the institutional capacity, more SQMs (for strengthening, quality and maintenance monitoring mechanism) and higher levels of spending including the expenditure on maintenance”, the Minister further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the objective of PMGSY is to provide all weather access to eligible unconnected rural habitations. The scheme is considered as a key ingredient in ensuring sustainable poverty reduction and the Union Ministry is sanctioning projects depending upon the eligibility and execution capacity of the State.
The intensity of poor implementation of the scheme in J&K can be gauged from the fact that for the financial year 2013-14, the Ministry had fixed a target of completion of 1285 kilometers of road length. But the State could only complete 798 kilometers up to January 2014.
“This indicates that the completion trend in 2013-14 up to January was very slow as compared to available sanctioned length”, the Ministry has observed in an official communication, adding “this is a cause for great concern”.
Stressing the need for taking necessary corrective measures to achieve the target length, the Ministry has directed the concerned officers of the State to regularly review the pending road works in details with the relevant PIUs and SRRDA officials and draw up a realistic completion plan for ensuring the achievement of the target within the stipulated period.
Follow our WhatsApp channel