Chief secretary Rakesh Sharma sounded unhappy over the slow progress of the developmental projects being undertaken under the Nainital district plan with no fund crunch hanging over them while convening a review meeting in Nainitalon Friday.
He vented anger upon being informed that despite the requisite fund being released under the district plan, things have been going at a snail’s pace.
He said that in the last financial year, the State Government had released Rs300 crore under the district plan. “However, this ongoing financial year, the state government has increased the budget 140 percent. The figure is now Rs720 crore. To ensure that the funds thus released is best utilised, the State Government decided to keep the fund at the disposal of the district magistrate,” he said. “Now, with funds being available and the climate congenial, there is no reason why the pace of execution of the sanctioned projects should not gain,” CS said.
CS also instructed Naintial DM Deepak Rawat and chief development officer (CDO) lalit Mohan Rayal to strictly monitor the process of execution and make physical verification of the quality of the materials being used by visiting the sites at regular intervals.
As it came to the fore during the meeting that the directorates of different departments have been meddling into the district plan like procuring the equipment through tender, CS asked the agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry directorates to stop poking into the district plan. At the same time, he instructed the CDO to make sure that things are procured through tender at the district level alone.
It has been noticed that Naintial district agriculture department has received mere Rsone lakh out of Rs57 lakh sanctioned over the past six months. He said things would speed up soon. He instructed the forest department officials to make use of the fund in developing the forest instead of spending it in renovating the departments’ buildings and guest houses.
Stressing the role of the people’s representatives in participatory democracy, Sharma asked the officials to keep them on board while executing the district plan. “They must be taken into confidence as far as the progress of the works is concerned at regular intervals,” he said.
Taking note on the technical hitches like manpower crunches affecting constructions, CS instructed DM to make pool of assistant engineers and additional engineers from other departments so as to ensure that the construction works go smoothly.
He said with the monsoon leaving, PWD should start road construction and repair roads on a war footing. During the presentation, the PWD officials apprised him that 110 out of 300 sanctioned works have been executed so far. He instructed the chief engineer irrigation DC Singh to clean and repair the canals at the earliest.
Naintial DM Deepak Rawat said that garbage trenching grounds are being constructed now in Haldwani and Gaulapar. He also mentioned the development works being done under Mega Project in Gaulapar. DM also said that Rs51.22 crore has been released to Nainital district in the ongoing financial year 2015-16 and Rs29 crore has been released to the departments so far. The departments have spent Rs19.71 crore till date, he added.
Stressing on physical verification of the all the ongoing projects on the part of the officers concerned at regular intervals, CS asked the Kumaon commissioner AS Nayal to see how the construction of Koshi barrage worth Rs80 lakh is going on in Ramnagar. Notably, irrigation and tourism departments are involved in the construction. During the review meeting, among other dignitaries, director social welfare Vishnu Singh Dhanik, CDO lalit Mohan Rayal, Kumaon commissioner AS Nayal, MD KMVN DS Garbyal, PWD executive engineer KP Joshi, CMO lM Upreti and ADM BS Firmal were present.