Srinagar, July 4: The Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances has revealed a dismal picture of centrally sponsored developmental projects being undertaken in J&K even as it asked the concerned agencies to speed up the works.
The report has been filed by senior parliamentarian, Maneka Gandhi, who is also the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances, following her visit to the summer capital. She was accompanied by five other MPs who “reviewed assurances pertaining to economic development of Jammu and Kashmir with the representatives of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Environment and Forests, Defence , Home Affairs, Power, Tourism and Road Transport. The officials from the State Government of J&K also participated in the discussion.”
The report, a copy of which is with Greater Kashmir, has pointed out that apart from slow work on conservation of world famous Dal lake and other water bodies, even the cases of “land under army occupation were not being solved in a time-bound manner.”

LAND OCCUPANCY CASES
“The Committee reviewed the pending assurances pertaining to Land under Army occupation in J&K with the officials of the Ministry of Defence. The Committee was apprised regarding the details of the land under army occupation,” reads the report.
The Committee “desired that the cumbersome process involved for the processing of the cases be further streamlined and time period curtailed in regularization of rent/compensation.” “The requisition of land is being done under J&K RAIP, for which rent is paid to the land owners on the rates notified by the State Government. As per latest information furnished to the Committee 289 cases of regularization of land were pending for several years with the Revenue and Home Department. The officials of the state Government were provided with the details of such cases, with the directions to dispose of all these cases in a time-bound manner so that the rent due to the land owners is disbursed promptly,” the report reads.

DAL CONSERVATION SLOW
The committee observed that Dal lake conservation project “has incurred time and cost overrun” adding that the lake is “heavily polluted.”
“The Committee deliberated upon conservation of Dal Lake, which has been sanctioned under National Lake Conservation Programme (NLCP) and included under Prime Minister's Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) with an outlay of Rs 300 crores. The project has incurred time and cost overrun and is heavily polluted,” the report reads.
“The project is being implemented by J&K Lakes and Waterways Development Authority. The Committee took note of action taken by the State Government for the conservation of Lake such as dredging, de-silting, water chemistry, lake sewage treatment etc.”
“The Committee was however not satisfied with the progress and the outcome of the action taken by the State Government so far. Maneka Gandhi, herself visited Dal lake to have first hand assessment of work done regarding conservation of the lake,” the official document reads.

ON OTHER WATER BODIES
The Committee painted a similar picture of other water bodies. “The Committee took note of the conservation and management of water body under National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP) and those included under PMRP. Detailed deliberations were undertaken on Wullar, Tso-Morari, Manser and Surinam Lakes. The Committee was also informed that at times management action plan tends to ignore conservation of wetlands. Despite Rs 120 crores committed under PMRP for Wullar, the project could not make much headway for want of management action plan and other activities contemplated under NWCP. Rs 30 crores has been released for the current financial year and Mrs Gandhi reviewed the preparedness of the States in the utilization of the funds,” the report reads.
The Committee noted that while a “separate authority exist for conservation of Dal Lake under the administrative control of urban development department, the State forest department were made responsible for conservation of management of water bodies other than Dal lake in J&K.”
The Committee “emphasized the need to synergise the efforts and urged the State Government to set up an independent body for conservation and management of all water bodies.”

ON SPORTS ACTIVITIES
“The Committee reviewed assurance pertaining to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Environment and Forest on July 2, 2012.” “At the outset, the Committee reviewed the winter sports projects of the state, forwarded to the Union Government, which envisages construction of hostel building at Gulmarg with an estimated cost of 300 lakhs, Procurement of imported skiing equipment for Rs. 150 lakh etc. Due to paucity of funds the proposal has not been fructified. However, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has released Rs.4.4 crores for synthetic football turf at TRC, Srinagar and grant of Rs.6.0 Crores approved for construction of multi-purpose hall at Jammu for financial year 2012-13. Meanwhile, the Ministry has requested Planning Commission to sanction Rs. 20 crore as additional Central assistance to the State. The Committee urged the Ministry to prevail upon Planning Commission and ensure funds as sought by the State are released for the development of sports,” the report reads.

ON TOURISM
The Committee reviewed the Tourism and Power projects included under the PMRP, 2004, with the representatives of the Central Ministries of Home Affairs, Tourism, and some state government officials.
“An overview revealed that as against 67 projects taken up under PMRP, 33 projects are under various stages of implementation and another 03 projects, 2 of which pertains to Leh and Kargil with respect to Food Processing industry, are still under formulation/preparatory stage,” report has pointed out.
The Committee expressed their “concern over time and cost overrun of the projects under implementation and those under preparatory stage.”

ELECTRIFICATION UNSATISFACTORY
The Committee was “not satisfied with the electrification of villages, included under PMRP and urged the Government to expedite the pace of village electrification, including electrification of partially electrified villages and access of Power to BPL families.”
The Committee also emphasized early completion of Leh-Srinagar transmission project to improve Power situation in Leh and Kargil regions of the State.
It also reviewed setting up of Tourist villages, costing Rs 32 crores under PMRP and “emphasized that aesthetic and environment angle should not lost sight of, in undertaking project under this head.”

Lastupdate on : Wed, 4 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 4 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST