All depts to achieve completion targets of works under Capex budget as per directions of CS J&K: Secretary Planning

Dr Langer reviews UT Capex works & CSS with Planning heads of all Administrative Departments

JAMMU, March 02: Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring Department, Dr Raghav Langer today chaired a meeting to review expenditure under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), physical/financial progress under UT Capex, physical verification of completed works and projects identified for monitoring on UT PMG portal.

The Planning Officers of all Administrative Departments participated in the meeting. Secretary Planning directed all concerned officers to do daily departmental review in view of approaching closure of the Financial Year 22-23 and to ensure that the budget released gets fully utilised before 31st March.

The meeting started with the review of fund availability & expenditure position under Centrally Sponsored & Central Sector Schemes. Single Nodal Account (SNA) has been operationalised in the UT for implementing various CSS. It was apprised that the off-take of funds under CSS has improved by about Rs 900 crore compared to last year for the period ending January from Rs 9423 crore to Rs 10303 crore.

The expenditure has also improved from Rs 5224 crore to Rs 6222 crore; an increase of 9% till 31st Jan, 2023 over the corresponding period of the previous Financial Year. Substantial progress will further get reported when MPR’s for the month of February are received by 5th of this month. Upto January 2023, an amount of Rs 2867.86 crore have been utilized under UT sector, Rs 288.81 crore under Negotiated Loans and approx Rs 1100 crores under PMDP.

So far 10920 works/projects have been completed during the current year under UT Capex Budget; which is in addition to projects which have been completed under the District Capex. The departments assured in the meeting to achieve the target of 22000 plus works under UT Capex as per the directions already conveyed by the office of Chief Secretary.

Further, it was conveyed by Director General E&S that during the current year, 49899 works/projects were identified for physical verification and 45524 works/projects have already been physically verified (91%) by the field officers & data entered on the PV portal. Wherever certain deficiencies are observed, the verification reports are being shared with the concerned districts/departments. With regard to PMG, it was informed that State Project Monitoring Group is an institutional mechanism that helps to expedite issue resolution, fast-tracking of approvals/clearances for infrastructure projects. The participating officers were directed to upload about 10 projects of each Sector for being monitored under UT PMG Portal.

The Secretary directed the Planning Heads of the departments to take all possible steps in order to accelerate the pace of development so that maximum works are completed well in time.

The meeting was attended by DG Economics & Statistics Satvir K. Soodan, DG Planning PD&MD Shahzada Bilal Ahmad, DG Development Expenditure Division-II Parvez Ahmad Kakroo, DG Agriculture Production Department Harjeet Rai, DG Planning Kashmir Directorate Athar Hussain Qadri; besides Directors, Joint Directors & Deputy Directors Planning of all Administrative Departments.