Substantial increase in project completions: Chief Secretary

Major reforms undertaken by the UT in administration & governance

JAMMU, JANUARY 25: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today remarked that J&K has come a long way in improving both the quality and magnitude of expenditure in the last couple of years which has resulted in five fold increase in number of projects completed.

He made these remarks while speaking in a meeting to review the expenditure out of Capex budget 2022-23 by different departments.

The meeting was attended by the Administrative Secretaries, Directors of Finance and other concerned officers from different departments.

Srinagar based officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

At the outset, the Chief Secretary impressed upon the Administrative Secretaries to look out for the projects that are nearing completion so that funds are provided for their early culmination. He urged them to accelerate the pace of expenditure so that no part remains to be unspent before the given period.

Dr Mehta maintained that J&K has improved on many indices continuously from the last few years. He gave out that the developmental curve has seen an upward trend with enhanced focus on both quality and quantity of work done on ground.

The Chief Secretary stressed on continuing this pace and momentum of development and reforms in administration so that the objective of less government more governance is achieved effectively. He enumerated that the UT has been successful in moving up the ladder on number of developmental parameters. He elucidated that whether it is digitization of land records, construction of roads under PMGSY, tourist arrivals, sports infrastructure or activities, industrial Investments etc, J&K happens to be an example in fast tracking development.

In terms of reforms, he observed that the UT has done a transformative  job. He stated that a year or so before, it was unimaginable to think of Digital J&K, which is a reality today. He reiterated that no goal fixed ever has remained too far for J&K to achieve. He stated that the reforms taken by the LG administration had been first of their kind in the history of J&K.

He said that be it District Good Governance Index, Departmental Deliverables, saturation of individual beneficiary programmes, Aspirational blocks, Aspirational Panchayats, introduction of e-office or other measures, J&K has attained a distinction in moving towards a more vibrant, responsive, transparent and accountable system in these years.

The Chief Secretary urged the officers to make preparations for effectively implementing the next year budget. He advised them to have ambitious targets and achieve them efficiently. He made out that each of these set targets should be followed dedicatedly by all of them. He directed for conducting monthly meetings to assess the progress at apex level besides departmental meetings regularly by the respective Administrative Secretaries to achieve the targets efficiently on time.

The Chief Secretary also said that number of projects likely to be completed in 22-23 is likely to be around 65,000 which shall be more than seven times of number of projects completed in 18-19, reflecting the emergence of new work culture in J&K.