J&K’s first district Capex budget approved by Lt Governor

Jammu, June 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) J&K Lt Governor G.C. Murmu on Friday approved the first district Capex budget for 2020-21 of the Union Territory with an unprecedented hike of 67 per cent.

An official statement said: "Rs 5,136.40 Cr District Capex Budget proposed for the current Financial year as compared to Rs 3,079.54 Cr previous year, with a substantial hike of 67 per cent was approved today."

Murmu chaired the high level meeting at the Raj Bhavan to discuss and approve the budget "to cater to the developmental needs of J&K with focus on the empowerment of Panchayati Raj System and strengthening grass root level of democracy through participatory management and mobilization of resources efficiently by fully providing matching grants through CSS and their effective implementation and monitoring".

"Notwithstanding the disruption created by the Covid pandemic, the meeting discussed detailed proposal under the District Capex Plan 2020-21, physical status of projects those targeted for completion in the year 2020-21, status and progress of works under Centrally Sponsored Schemes and approved a District Capex Budget 2020-21 amounting to Rs 5,136.40 crore compared to Rs 3079.54 crore in the previous year, with a 67 per cent hike..."

The capex budget, the statement said, comprises three components - Centrally-Sponsored Schemes funds of Rs 4,543.47 crore, negotiated loans of Rs 403.50 crore and UT Component of Rs 189.34 crore.

According to the statement, District Planning and Development Boards will be set up with focus on active public participation in overall 'bottom-up' planning and inclusive development process of districts.

"District Development Commissioners (DDCs) will create online dashboards to monitor real time progress of developmental projects and track grievances of general public also in that dashboard," it said.

Murmu also stressed that authorities concerned take all the possible measures, taking into account the SOPs for Covid-19 issued by the government from time to time, to accelerate the various ongoing works on various projects under different district sectors schemes for their time-bound completion.

"The projects/works on completion under priority sectors viz Health, Jal Shakti and Education sector would provide assured benefits to about 25 lakh souls/students and on completion of 705 kms road would benefit large chunk of unconnected areas which would result in spread effect in terms of high growth trajectory and ultimately raising living standard through better mobility.

"The meeting was also informed that a 30 per cent increase in the project execution performance was achieved in the current fiscal in comparison to the last financial year owing to technological interventions to monitor projects using PULSE (Android Mobile App) & geo tagging, in addition to 100 per cent physical verification and third party monitoring."

The Lt Governor also asked the DDCs to identify at least one iconic place in each district and develop it for the promotion of tourism.

He also observed that the 'Back to Village' programme has received positive feedback, and emphasised on completion of all pending works, under the programme, on priority.

"Lt Governor called for allocating some percentage of the budget for maintenance of assets and stressed on adopting convergence model by dovetailing of funds under various schemes for optimum utilisation of resources in developmental works. He also cautioned against disturbing the material-labour ratio under MGNREGA, as has been done in the past."

Noting that the Government is aiming to achieve the status of aspirational UT, he asked all the stakeholders to put in a strenuous effort to attain the same.

"Instructions were also issued pertaining to construction of Border bunkers, tribal hostels, strengthening of health infrastructure, outcome based budgeting etc," the statement said.

Source: IANS