Lingering projects
Lack of infrastructure and ill planning by various government departments is crippling the state of Jammu and Kashmir on various fronts. So much so that there is no accountability being witnessed so that the laxities that hinder the growth of infrastructure are being probed and plugged once and for all.
The state has nearly 2000 all important projects that have been left to linger on for many years now. Though these projects are of vital importance to the state but the officials and the executing agencies have turned a deaf ear to the concerns of the common man who is seeking completion of these projects to address the need of improving the basic infrastructure in the state.
Given the need to get the unfinished projects completed the Governor’s Administration has set an ambitious target to complete 1717 languishing projects by the end of this year.
According to the details of 1717 languishing projects to be completed by the end of this year, major projects fall under the jurisdiction of Public Health Engineering and Irrigation and Flood Control department, having 700 languishing projects followed by Public Works (R&B) Department 300 and Power Development Department 168.
A total of 111 projects of School Education department, 103 of Health and Medical Education department, 79 of Industries and Commerce, 73 of Rural Development Department, 65 of Youth Services and Sports and 62 projects of Ladakh Affairs Department are also in the list of 1717 projects to be completed by the end of 2019.
The Finance department has asked all the administrative secretaries to give monthly progress report of the work done on languishing projects taken up for completion under Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Corporation (JKIDFC) funding.
These 1717 languishing projects will be completed under languishing scheme funded by the Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Finance. The State Administrative Council (SAC) in order to complete the languishing projects has established JKIDFC to raise loan of Rs 8000 crore.
A tentative assessment by the planning, development and monitoring department indicated that incomplete projects worth over Rs 10000 crore were at various stages and that over Rs 6000 crore would be required to complete all of them in one go.
The Planning department has further analyzed that six vital departments PW(R&B), PHE/I&FC, School Education, Higher Education, Youth Services and Sports, Health and Medical Education and Tourism taken together accounted for nearly two thirds of the total unfunded burden. The projects in these six departments alone account for nearly Rs 4000 crore.
The issue of leaving the projects midway needs a serious rethink as in a state like ours keeping 2000 projects lingering on for years means lack of accountability and will on the part of officers to take the executing agencies to task.
The entire exercise also needs to be handled in such a way that no such laxities are recorded in future. For this the government needs to act tough against the officials during whose tenure the projects had to be completed but were left halfway owing to lack of perusal by these officials or other concerned.
KV Network
