J&K govt approves ₹5,136 cr district capex budget for FY’21

The Jammu and Kashmir government has approved ₹5,136.40 crore district capex budget for FY2020-21 with a huge 67 per cent hike, officials said.

This is the first district capex budget of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir approved by Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu, an official spokesman said.

Murmu chaired a high-level meeting to discuss and approve the first capital expenditure budget of the union territory for the fiscal year 2020-21 here at the Raj Bhavan on Friday night, he said.

The meeting discussed the finalisation of district capex budget for 2020-21 to cater to the developmental needs of J&K with focus on the empowerment of ‘panchayati raj system’ and strengthening grass root level of democracy through participatory management and mobilisation of resources efficiently, the spokesman said.

District development boards

The Lt Governor called for constitution of district planning and development boards with focus on active public participation and their representatives to give shape to the bottom up planning process for inclusive development of districts.

He directed for formulation of initial preparation of documents as per the resource position including preparation of panchayat level and block level plans and further consolidationat district level by District Development Commissioners (DDCs).

“Notwithstanding the disruption created by the Covid pandemic, the meeting discussed detailed proposal under the district capex plan 2020-21, ...and approved a district capex budget 2020-21 amounting to 5,136.40 crore compared to 3,079.54 crore in the previous year, with a 67 per cent hike...,” he said.

The meeting was also informed that a 30 per cent increase in the project execution performance was achieved in the current fiscal in comparison to the last financial year owing to technological interventions.

The Lt Governor directed the DCs for creating online dashboards to monitor real-time progress of developmental projects and track and dispose grievances of general public also on the same platform.

During the meeting, the Lt Governor observed that the ‘Back to Village’ programme has received a positive feedback from all the corners. He emphasised on completion of all the pending works, under the programme, on priority so that the aspirations of public are met reflecting their say in the planning and policy decisions.

The Lt Governor called for allocating some percentage of the budget for maintenance of assets and stressed on adopting convergence model by dovetailing of funds under various schemes for optimum utilization of resources in developmental works.