SRINAGAR: In a first to bring added transparency and accountability into public expenditure, the government has put all of the 10573 infrastructure projects completed during 2019-20 into public domain for registering public grievances and feedback as well, reads a communiqué issued by DIPR-JK.
The Finance department has released a number of e-books depicting the pictorial images and all the relevant details of these projects for general public to see, analyse and give their necessary feedback regarding the same.
Pertinently, there are a significant number of projects completed this year as compared to previous achievements in raising the developmental infrastructure in the UT. Contrary to previous financial year of 2018-19 when 8106 projects were dedicated to the public, this year the number has raised to 10573 despite many challenges faced by the administration on account of Corona pandemic and transition from state to UT.
Also, this innovative practice has been initiated for the first time to put every government work into public domain so that people participate in ensuring transparency and monitoring of expenditure being incurred under various schemes. The objective behind this measure is to take the first hand appraisal reports from the people so that the public money is saved from going down the drain and is spent as per the needs and aspirations of general public. This is, as per the government, going to fill the gap between what is projected on papers and what actually transpires on ground.
This novel initiative is also expected to make the administration more responsive and inculcate a kind of responsibility among all the stakeholders from top to grassroots level. It will further sensitise actual beneficiaries to be watchful and take due interest in making every penny spent from government coffers attain what it is envisioned to achieve originally while envisaging such developmental activities.
The details as provided in the e-books depicts that 6972 projects in UT sector (6829 in 2018-19), 1165 in District sector (1277 in 2018-19), 1930 and 506 works under Back to Village and JKIDFC respectively have been completed during 2019-20. Pictorial and other relevant details of all of the projects have been showcased in the e-books released by the Finance department recently.
Further, the department has also designated the officers to receive the grievances and feedback, if any, from the general public regarding these projects. The quality or amount of work as detailed in the e-books should be analysed by the general public with that actually found on ground and any discrepancy identified therein should be escalated to the relevant authorities.
The Finance department has designated Shamim Ahmad Wani, Special Secretary Finance to receive the feedback from public regarding the JKIDFC works. He can be reached at shamimwani22@gmail.com. The feedback with respect to UT sector projects can be sent to Tariq Ahmad Khan, Director General Expenditure Division-II at expenditure2finance@gmail.com. While any grievance regarding the works done under ‘Back to Village’ programme could be sent to Ajay Kumar Sharma, Director Expenditure Division-I at directorareaplanning@gmail.com. Besides, people aspiring to escalate their grievances to Financial Commissioner, Finance office directly should reach out to him at psfinance-jk@nic.in.
The e-books that have been released on the web portal of finance department (jakfinance.nic.in) included Finance Department’s First Book: Promoting Good Governance, Pictoral journey of 1930 projects completed under ‘Back to Village’ Programme, Book showing 1165 projects completed under district CAPEX, and few coffee table books showcasing projects completed under languishing category by JKIDFC.
The department has urged upon all the Deputy Commissioners to host the relevant portions of these e-books under each category on their district websites so that maximum number of people get access to the same. They have further been urged to encourage people to come forward with their feedback so that necessary action is initiated as per their complaints or suggestions.
