Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha approved release of 50% of revenue and capital outlay on 1st day of financial year. The timely release of revenue and capital component is expected to accelerate pace of development in the Union Territory. It merits mention here that the Parliament recently approved highest ever budget for the Union Territory of the order of Rs.1,08,621 crore consisting of capital outlay of Rs.39817 crore and revenue component of Rs.68804 crore.
While authorizing the revenue and capital outlay, the Government issued strict directions for timely completion of tendering process before end of May to ensure that there are no constraints due to limited working season in J&K. The flow of funds to the subordinate offices will be in online mode through BEAMS and all departments shall be required to submit monthly reports regarding the progress made by them under various components.
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In order to ensure uniform pace of expenditure, it has been clearly stipulated that not more than 30% of the funds can be spent in the last quarter of the financial year and not more than 15% of the funds can be spent during the last month of March. This is intended to avoid rush of expenditure towards end of the financial year. The projects undertaken during the year will need to meet basic discipline of Administrative Approval, Technical Sanction and e-tendering. Geo-tagged photographs will be necessary before commencement of the work and after completion of the work for incurring expenditure.
The activities will be available for public viewing through EMPOWERMENT web-portal and people’s participation in the development process is one of the key objectives that will be pursued. The flow of funds under individual beneficiary schemes shall be in DBT mode with Aadhaar seeding which will ensure that only eligible beneficiaries get the benefit of government schemes.
In a significant move, the Panchayat Level Plans, Block Development Plans and District Development Plans are expected to be ready in the month of May. This will be for the first time in the history of J&K that Panchayats shall be fully involved in the formulation of plans. Suitable training of district officials shall be undertaken by the Government in this regard to enable them to prepare the plans in a time bound manner in accordance with the felt needs of people. A system of complete physical verification is being institutionalized including third party verification for high value projects.
