SRINAGAR: State Projects Department NABARD, J&K regional office today organized a one-day zonal-level sensitization cum review meeting on Rural Infrastructure Fund (RIDF).
The meeting was chaired by Ashok Khokar, Chief Engineer R&B South Kashmir and Surinder Singh DGM, NABARD Srinagar Cell in the presence of AGM NABARD, Sanjeev Sharma and DDM NABARD, Rouf Zargar. The Superintendent Engineers, Executive Engineers and AEEs from the R&B department from Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian attended the meet.
DDM NABARD, Rouf Zargar informed the meeting that there are currently 158 ongoing projects in South Kashmir which have been sanctioned to R&B by NABARD with a total sanctioned amount of Rs 692 Cr. Out of the total sanctioned amount, an amount of Rs 310 Cr has been disbursed till date.
Speaking on the occasion, DGM NABARD indicated that NABARD has been providing financial support to the State Governments and Union Territories for strengthening of rural infrastructure under RIDF. He stated that RIDF which started as a ‘last mile approach’ to facilitate completion of ongoing irrigation, flood protection & watershed management projects since 1995-96, has become more broad-based over the years and as on date covers as many as 39 eligible activities.
He highlighted that the disbursement against utilization certificates during the current financial year needs to be enhanced.
The Chief Engineer advised all the Executive Engineers to expedite the submission of Utilization Certificates (UCs) for works completed. He emphasized on early grounding of projects, quarterly submission of UCs and submission of PCC/PCR after completion of projects.
Sanjeev Sharma and Shubham Suyal from the State Projects Department NABARD answered various queries of the house about the RIDF sanction and disbursement process.
They gave a detailed presentation on the operational issues involving DPR formulation, submission of Utilization Certificates, Projects Yet to be Grounded (PYGs), Slow Moving Projects, submission of Project Completion Reports (PCRs) etc. Thereafter, department-wise review of ongoing projects of all the districts of Kashmir division was undertaken. The implementing departments were advised to quicken the pace of implementation of projects.
Chief Engineer in his concluding remarks assured that the implementing department will extend all the possible support to remove the bottlenecks in the smooth implementation of NABARD RIDF projects.
