With an intention to timely execution of flood control projects on ground, the State Government has decided to appoint 10 chief engineers who will be made accountable for their jurisdiction and will be empowered to take decisions instead of sending files to the State Government for approval, in disaster affected districts of the State.
For this, they have divided 13 districts into 10 zones and fix their office as well. Recently, the Union Government has released `870 crore for flood control to the State. During the meeting, it was disclosed that 41 canals, which were under possession of Uttar Pradesh, have been handed to the Uttarakhand. These decisions were taken in Chief Minister review meeting of irrigation department in Dehradun on Tuesday.
The Uttarakhand Government has decided to appoint an official of irrigation department, who will establish coordination between the irrigation departments of union and state so that fund release procedure would get smoothen.
The Union Government has sanctioned `870 crore to irrigation department to build infrastructure as part of flood safety measure in disaster-affected districts of the state. In this process, the State Government has decided to create 10 posts of chief engineer (CE) in irrigation department and CE would be responsible for all.
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has categorically asked them to “realise your responsibility” and execute their duty with full sincerity. He stressed that “you expedite your execution with quality and complete bidding process by the second week of February so you would start execution of projects as weather opens.”
He assured them that “fund crunch would not be hurdle so you focus on their work.”
“You prepare project district wise and send the proposals before the State Government on priority basis because the State Government has already earmarked `870 crore for this.”
Praising their expertise on such work, the CM said “You have specialisation on such work; so this is the time to utilise your skill in state’s interest.” Currently only three districts namely Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag and Dehradun have submitted their proposal worth of `300 crore out of `870 crore. In which Uttarkashi has submitted a projects worth of `150 crore while Rudraprayag and Dehradun submitted for `90 crore and `60 crore respectively.
During the meeting it was revealed that due to long gestation period of files procedures, execution of projects get delayed so the Chief Minister decided to create 10 chief engineers, which would be stationed in Dehradun, Didihaat, Bageshwar, Haldwani, Rudrapur, Haridwar, Uttarkashi, Srinagar, Rudraprayag and Roorkee.
They have been empowered to prepare proposals upto `100 crore in their jurisdiction. The CM also instructed them that “you prepare Detailed Project Report (DPR) proposals, which are to be funded by the Central Government, on priority basis. You outsource your projects if it is required so that you would be able to expedite its execution.”
The CM instructed the Chief Secretary and additional chief secretary to monitor their work on weekly basis and asked Garhwal and Kumaon commissioner to review their progress on ground. He said he would personally visit the spot to review actual progress. The CM disclosed that 41 canals have been transferred to the Uttarakhand from Uttar Pradesh.
During the meeting, Irrigation Minister Yashpal Arya, agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat, MlAs Shaila Rani Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Madan Singh Bisht and lalit Farswan, Chief secretary Subhash Kumar, Additional chief secretary Rakesh Sharma, Principal Secretary to CM SS Sandhu, Secretary Irrigation Ajay Kumar PRadyot, Secretary Finance Bhaskaranand, Additional secretary to CM Nidhimani Tripathi were present there.