Srinagar: Chief Secretary (CS) Arun Kumar Mehta Sunday gave a detailed overview of the developmental activities happening in J&K for the past year to the CEO, NITI Aayog, Parameswaran Iyer.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that giving an overview of the developmental works taking place in J&K during the previous year, Mehta said that the main endeavor of the J&K administration was to bring governance to the doorsteps of people with the least encumbrances.
He apprised the visiting delegation about dozens of reforms taken by the administration towards ensuring greater transparency, effective monitoring, and better outcomes.
The CS gave out that to ensure the percolation of benefits to the grassroots level, J&K had completely moved to DBT mode.
He said that every fund transfer was being done through BEAMS and spent through a robust digital payment system called JK PaySys.
Mehta said that each work taken in hand was mandatorily e-tendered after being given the proper Administrative Approval and Technical Sanction.
He said that this unique mechanism ensures that each project was technically sound and gets the requisite funds for timely completion.
The CS said that the works were being monitored and evaluated by third parties besides the executing agencies carrying them out.
Regarding the reforms in governance, he said that J&K was offering 209 services through online mode through an e-Unnat platform where the applicants need not have to visit the offices physically but get these services delivered in the comforts of their homes.
Mehta said that the system was also RAS integrated for speedy disposal of requests and feedback from the public about these services.
He also highlighted other initiatives of the government like the universal health coverage scheme, Sehat in J&K, the transformation of agriculture from traditional to remunerative enterprises, engagement of youth through the establishment of some 40,000 youth clubs, and providing of sports infrastructure to each panchayat and organising sports events to provide an opportunity to 37 lakh youngsters for honing their sports skills.
The CS also enumerated several institutional reforms like elections to all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), the introduction of e-office, digitisation of land records, providing of land passbooks to farmers, the introduction of District Good Governance Index (DGGI) and establishment of CAT benches besides strengthening the anti-corruption mechanism by establishing more potent Anti-Corruption Bureau under the Central Vigilance Commission here.
The official spokesman said that the Administrative Secretaries of H&UDD, School Education, and PD&MD gave presentations about the progress and reforms made by their concerned departments.
It was revealed that J&K leads the country in many parameters including less neo-natal mortality rate, the sex ratio at birth, life expectancy, full Immunisation of children, institutional births, and per capita energy consumption.
It was also said that J&K has attained 100 percent saturation in beneficiary schemes like old age pension, widow pension, scholarships to minority and SC students, and Pishan Tracker.
The meeting was informed that under the SAUBHAGYA scheme, electricity connections were being provided to every household and to date 8.57 lakh beneficiaries were covered while under the PM Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), 12.41 lakh LPG connections had been provided to BPL households.
The spokesman said that the meeting was informed that under the PM’s Matru Vandana Yojana, 100 percent saturation had been attained with coverage of 55,841 pregnant women beneficiaries covered against a target of 49,950 during 2021-22.
Similarly, the meeting was apprised that J&K had become 100 percent open defecation free, 100 percent of urban wards had been covered under door-to-door solid waste management collection, 99.94 percent population had been provided with piped water under JJM with 23,160 schools, 24,163 Anganwadi centres, 3324 health institutions, and 1666 Gram Panchayat buildings being provided with drinking water connections.
It was said that macdamisation of 7301 km had been accomplished in the previous year at the rate of 21 km per day which was earlier pegging at only 6 km per day.
The meeting was also informed that under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), Kissan Credit Card Scheme, and Soil Health Card 100 percent saturation had been achieved besides under monthly income of agriculture households category, J&K had achieved the third rank while in performing state and union territories in agriculture and allied sectors category, it ranked fifth.
It was also given out in the meeting that the highest-ever investment proposals of Rs 52,000 crore had been received, the highest-ever milk production of 2594 thousand metric tonnes had been attained besides highest-ever GST Collection of Rs 11,242 crore, highest-ever stamp duty collection of Rs 439 crore and highest-ever excise collection of Rs 1830 crore had also been achieved during the previous fiscal.