The district planning committee meeting which was to be presided over by the Minister in-charge of Pauri, Surendra Aggrawal, in Vikash Bhawan at the district headquarters on Friday, has been postponed till February 25. Due to bad weather conditions, Aggrawal failed to turn up. This meeting is an important one as far as sanctioning proposals for different departments under the district plan is concerned. According to the rules, the Minister in-charge is to preside over such meetings.
Chief Development Officer Sonika had told The Pioneer that the Minister in-charge of the Pauri district had been appointed on February 5 and the date of the DPC meeting had been fixed after 15 days as per rule. The sanctioning of different departmental work as per the district plan 2014-15 and the recommendation of Rs102 crore district plan for 2015-16 would be cleared in the District Planning Committee meeting, she said.
Sonika further said that Rs50 crores had been released to different departments against the district plan 2014-15 and Rs37 crores has been spent till the end of January 2015. She stressed that according to the instruction of the State Government, the money of the district plan can be spent in the running work.
Money under the plan has been spent in these works and the remaining balance money- of nearly Rs32 crore will be sanctioned in the District Planning Committee meeting, she added. It is pertinent to mention that the development funds under the different projects under the District Plan should be spent latest by 31 March.
Now the question is how many crores can be spent only in a little over one month by the different departments. On one hand, the State Government is determined to push for development while, on the other, the proposals could not have been sanctioned till now. Things are due to the belated appointment of the Minister in Charge of Pauri district.