J&K’s fast-track urban dev claims fall flat
Contrary to the government’s much touted claims over fast-track urban development in Jammu and Kashmir, official statistics released by the Centre have brought out altogether a different ground reality with regard to utilization of funds allotted for infrastructural development in urban areas of Union Territory.
The failure of administration to submit Utilization Certificates (UCs) in a timely manner and administrative lethargy have not only put a brake on continuous flow of funds to the Union Territory (UT) but also left allocated funds unutilized.
According to Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, it assists various States and UTs in urban development through its different schemes and programmes including Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0, Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) 2.0, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) and also addresses livelihood concerns under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) and PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi).
Under the schemes, Jammu and Kashmir has also been provided the funds to the tune of Rs.1,457 for the period 2015-16 to 2021-22) for bringing a landscape change in urban areas of the Union Territory but authorities concerned either failed to utilize funds or did not submit UCs in time that slowed down the pace of development.
To begin with AMRUT, the total committed central assistance for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh under scheme amounted to Rs.593.05 crore for the period 2015-16 to 2021-2022 out of which Rs.581.15 crore has been released so far. “The government of Jammu and Kashmir, however, submitted the UCs of only Rs.426.30 crore till date,” Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs said a written reply to a question asked by the Member of Parliament (MP), Jammu-Poonch seat Jugal Kishore Sharma in Lok Sabha.
Smart Cities Mission (SCM) Under the Mission, the Centre has extended a financial assistance of Rs.322 crore (from 2015 to till date) to Jammu and Kashmir. It has been committed that every smart city would get on an average of Rs.100 crore per year over a period of five years. Against the Central assistance of Rs.195 crore provided for building Jammu as Smart City, only Rs.140.94 crore were utilized, while the Srinagar Smart City project got assistance of Rs.127 crore but only Rs.98.19 crore were utilized. No central assistance was granted for the Srinagar Smart City project in the current financial year.
Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) Since its inception in October 2014, Jammu and Kashmir was provided a total of Rs.155.8 crore against the total allocation of Rs.200.63 under SBM-U for the entire mission period (2014-2021). However, it utilized only Rs.90.42 crore till, indicating that authorities did not execute projects in time.
DAY-NULM Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission was aimed at to reduce poverty and vulnerability of urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, for improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis. In this case too, Jammu and Kashmir also performed badly as it utilized only Rs.13 lakh against the central assistance of Rs.6.25 crore from 2016 till January 15 this year.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban Under this important scheme which was aimed at providing all-weather pucca (cemented) houses to eligible urban households, the Centre released an amount of Rs.333 crore against the sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs.745 crore but Jammu and Kashmir government has been able to utilize only Rs.205 crore. In the current financial year, only Rs.2 lakh has been released under the scheme to the UT. Moreover, the UT government has completed only 10393 houses against the sanctioned 48712 till date.
