J

Srinagar, Oct 31 (UNI) Taking undue advantage on the pretext of militancy, the engineers and other departmental heads in the Jammu and Kashmir have spent Rs 1800 crore on hundreds of projects without administrative approval.

However, after Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as Chief Minister of the state, a new work culture with greater accountability and transparency has been introduced.

Coming from the Union Government, Chief Minister made sincere efforts to upgrade the work culture in the State Government at all levels which became a popular catchword.

The long and unending militancy has taken a heavy toll of work culture in the state which needed to be corrected.

The Media advisor to Mr Azad, K B Jandial said the culture of seeking and according Administrative Approval (AA) prior to taking up any project has gone into disuse with the result that hundreds of projects estimated at a total cost of Rs 1800 crore are under execution without any approval and with no firm commitment of the government.

Apart from serious financial irregularity, there was no availability of adequate funds for their expeditious completion.

However a time frame of 10 working days has been fixed for the issuance of AA with the result that the Planning and Development Department has expeditiously cleared 309 out of 329 projects to be funded by NABARD.

In cases where funds are available, the Planning and Development Department cleared 84 out of 89 projects for which a separate timeframe of 25 days has been fixed.

He said the focus of the new work culture is on punctuality in government office, redressal of public grievances, checking wasteful expenditure, curbing corruption, monitoring of development works both in terms of quality and effective fiscal management and touring in districts and outlying areas for inspection and redressal of public complaints.

The punctuality in Civil Secretariat and other offices has been strictly enforced so that the officials attend to and redress public issues. A daily record of reporting time is to be maintained obligatorily, along with the submission of monthly action taken reports.

Double shifts have been introduced to expeditiously complete some of the on going projects.

About 660 such projects in the departments of R&B, PHE, UEED, Education, Health and Rural Development with estimated cost of over Rs 756 crore have so far been brought under this scheme and are being completed ahead of their estimated dates.

UNI BAS MQA BS1626