It must be a reason for the state administration to do an introspection when the World Bank’s latest rating of projects terms the implementation of its project in J&K as “moderately unsatisfactory”. Pertinent to mention that there is a Rs 1500 crore program funded by the World Bank in J&K for infrastructure building and enhancing state’s disaster management capabilities. The way this program has been implemented, the pace and progress of the program, has earned this disapproval from the Bank. It is also time to underline that this is not the first time the Bank has sniffed at the performance of the J&K. In its earlier report, the progress of the project was termed as “unsatisfactory”. As per the reports around Rs 30 crore are till now spent out of the total Rs 1500 crore available for the project. That is way below the mark. Though the semantics of the report, that earlier it was “unsatisfactory” and now it’s “moderately unsatisfactory”, might make a defense for the concerned officers. But the fact of the matter is that it’s a telling indictment on how our systems have turned dysfunctional. Normally any administration would complain for the lack of funds, when it comes to explaining why different development projects are not initiated. But here the case is entirely different. You have the money, but you don’t have the efficiency to use it. It smacks of ugly. Either you want to spend it in ways that it’s amenable to your corrupt ways of doing things, or you are simply incapable of doing it all. In both the cases you betray the trust people repose in the system. It’s true that we had a worst flood in 2014 and it took a toll on all development works. Afterwards there was a turmoil that left Kashmir lose many months of work. But that is not a sufficient explanation why the projects are not complete. The Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover was expected to be complete much before. It has already missed multiple deadline. Even now we don’t see it completing before long. It’s time that concerned officers are asked for the reasons of delay, and steps are taken to do away with the bottlenecks.
An angry World Bank
