Life in Kashmir after a full summer and autumn of discontent and disturbances has by and large returned to normal. Cumbersome strikes and unending shutdowns have been relegated to the pages of history. Market places are once again coming alive with activities. Shoppers are vying for buying winter stocks and woolens. Schools are  open. Examinations have been conducted, results have been announced and students are back to their desks. It augurs well that the government is serious about education of children and is contemplating to keep the universities, colleges, schools and libraries, open in winter zones of Kashmir and Jammu province during cold and chilly weather. In all likelihood the government has also worked out the logistics for undertaking this new exercise that is expected to benefit the students whose education suffered long during periods of street fights, dingdong battles, baton charging, firings and curfews. It is promising that life has started ticking but it is disturbing that the pendulum of development that stopped in the wake of these disturbances is yet to gain momentum. Notwithstanding the government’s claim of gearing up the administration, the developmental activities in Kashmir valley continue to be slow. During the past eight months with hardly fifteen to twenty percent of budget allocations and with development activity   going on at a snail's pace, it seems that the hardly fifty percent of funds in Kashmir valley would be utilized  As the things indicate this year also the state  bureaucracy will be repeating its past performance of diverting the funds earmarked for Kashmir to other districts of the state. The reports have been suggesting the administrative heads in districts other than those falling within valley have been tacitly advised to expend beyond the allocated funds as the additional grants will be met towards the end of the year out of the savings from Kashmir valley. For past twenty it has been a practice to divert the funds meant for Kashmir valley to other district so much so the funds received from Government of India for reconstruction of schools, colleges, bridge and other infrastructure despite giving utilization certificates were not utilized for the meant purposes but were diverted to other areas for electoral considerations. Let us repeat what this newspaper has been advocating for past many years. One the government should consider changing the financial calendar of the state from April-March to January- December that would provide more time for incurring expenditure on development works, the funds allocated for the financial year should not be allowed to lapse at the end of the year but allowed to spillover for the next year. The government should also work out for creating of corpus fund in all development departments including agriculture the primary sector for the state development.
The past five months did not only take a toll of the working of the field organization connected with the development, but it set dormancy in the hub of state administration - the civil secretariat. And despite the offices having moved to Jammu this inaction persists. The government at the time of taking over of the administration promised of tackling the problem of unemployment at top priority. The proportion of unemployed is more than twelve percent an a all time high and government is yet to come up with a scheme and program for tackling the problem. It is unfortunate that the state administration in addressing this issue on its own. It is now looking towards the committee appointed by New Delhi not realizing that this committee, like all such committees in the past, will pass on as yet another gimmick. Besides the ineffectiveness of the ministers, the people of the state are paying heavy prices for pampered and incompetent bureaucracy. The state cabinet more than a year back decided to regularize the services of the ad hoc and contractual employees including doctors and engineers who had put in seven years service and it also had evolved a procedure for regularizing the services of the people working against migrant vacancies. The tragic part is that not a single ad hoc or contractual employees have been so confirmed and hundreds of employees working against migrant vacancies are waiting for confirmation.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST