EditorialWhat led us to surrender sanctioned works?

What led us to surrender sanctioned works?

Date:

 

The report of the Jammu and government surrendering over 600 works approved under various schemes in the school sector is disappointing and shows that the execution of these projects might have not been completed for a variety of reasons. The proposed over 600 civil works being surrendered were approved by the Government of India in 2018-19 and 2019-20, but J&K Administration was unable to carry out for a variety of reasons. It is worth noting that this situation has arisen despite the government establishing the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) as a new mechanism to ensure proper monitoring of incomplete projects in J&K schools.

In this regard, the PIA was established a couple of years back at the administrative department level, and nodal officers were appointed at the divisional, district and ‘Samagra Shiksha' levels, clearly defining the agency's and nodal officers' roles and responsibilities. The state finance department had also created a roadmap for streamlining the J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) funding process. The PIA mechanism envisaged that the Chief Education Officers (CEOs), along with the executive engineers involved, would physically verify the approved projects being executed through the school education, road and buildings (R&B), or public engineering (PHE) departments. The CEOs will also highlight any problems or bottlenecks in the projects, after which the joint director, school education department, will randomly verify the works in his district. After failing to meet the deadline for completing the construction of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) and other girls' hostels, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta last year directed Project Director Samagra Shiksha to complete the work by March and December 2022, respectively. In a review meeting with Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry of Education stated, “Project Director Samagra Shiksha will complete construction work of KGBVs and Girls Hostel Buildings by December 2022.” It seems that lack of funding has caused a significant delay in the completion of a large number of infrastructure projects in the education sector across . “The projects were approved under various categories some years ago, but the government did not release the funds, which has now almost led to the cancellation of these vital projects.” On the direction of the chief secretary, the department recently compiled data on all departments' stalled projects in the wake of the state government's move to establish J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation Limited (JKIDFC) to generate Rs 8000 crore to be used in a phased manner to speed up work on delayed projects. In 2021, the Centre asked the J&K government to submit a proposal for surrendering civil works that had been approved under the SSA and RMSA schemes but could not be executed until 2019-20. In the PAB meeting this year, the J&K government stated that approximately 800 civil works, including girls hostels, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, school buildings, toilet blocks, drinking water arrangements, compound walls, and so on, were completed in 2022-23, and that approximately 3300 works are in various stages of completion and will be completed within the next six months. The problem of insufficient resources is exacerbated by project cost overruns, which cause project completion to be delayed. There were numerous projects at various stages of development that were abandoned due to insufficient funding, land issues, legal disputes or for other reasons. It was discovered that a large number of projects had been dormant for more than 7 – 8 years, and that investment in them had been a waste of money, while the public was dissatisfied. “Out of the sanctioned works, 2538 have been completed.” “A record note of the PAB meeting reveals that the expenditure under the civil work component for the current year remained Rs160 crore (including spill-over works), which is quite high in comparison to previous years.” The Centre unveiled the Samagra Shiksha scheme after combining the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), and Teacher Education (TE) schemes. As per the data available, there are 23,747 state-run schools, including 12,252 in Jammu Division and 11,495 in Kashmir Division.

Northlines
Northlines
The Northlines is an independent source on the Web for news, facts and figures relating to Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and its neighbourhood.

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