Toughening its stand, Government of India has stopped funding to J&K under Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) for permanent restoration of infrastructure, over the State Government’s failure to submit utilisation certificates of more than Rs 130 core it has received so far.
“As per PMO’s directions, further releases are not to bemade until the State Government submits the detailed UCs(item-wise/scheme-wise) for the earlier released amount,” reads a communicationfrom NITI Ayog’s to J&K Government.
Under the PMDP, Rs 2000 crore were approved for permanentrestoration of infrastructure damaged in the devastating flood of 2014.
Till date, the Centre has released Rs 1178 crore to J&K.The latest development comes after the state repeatedly wrote to the Centreseeking release of pending Rs 826 core under the program.
The State Government hasn’t submitted UCs of Rs 134.91 crorereleased under 1st, 2nd and 3rd tranches, according to the NITI Aayog letter.
The Director, NITI Aayog (J&K), Kiran Gupta has now”requested” the State Government to submit the pending UCs and the “requisiteinformation” to avail further funding under the program.
The NITI Aayog is monitoring the works taken up under thePMDP component for permanent restoration of the infrastructure damaged in thedevastating deluge.
Under this program, the funds are released by the UnionFinance Ministry on recommendations of the NITI Aayog.
In 2017, a team of officials from NITI Aayog had visited theState to inspect works executed under restoration program in Srinagar and Jammudistricts.
The team had then expressed concern over slow pace of workin different sectors under the permanent restoration scheme.
“The work under some projects needs to be sped up as thepace is very slow,” the team of official had observed in its report submitted tothe central body.
“It was observed that a few projects are yet to take off onaccount of pending court cases pertaining to higher education and forestsdepartments for awarding tenders and selling off damaged property for want ofbids at minimum reasonable prices,” the report had highlighted.