A number of development projects have been marked on paper in the last few months in Jammu and Kashmir. The goals must be pursued and ensured without delay to improve the living conditions of populations across the J&K including those living in hilly and far-flung areas.
The administration should always be alive to the fact that whatever it announces in terms of policies and scheme is finally measured in terms of implementation on the ground. A lot of deliberations, paperwork, and planning, goes behind any project and is finally measured against its impact including a short term as well as the long term on the living of people.
The schemes and projects must be carefully drafted and implement in light of what they finally do to the people and the environment in the long run.
Environmental concerns should be weighed high as lack of compliance with principles governing protection to it often is a key reason why natural hazards end up causing a significant number of avoidable casualties. There is a cost to pursuing development goals without paying attention to environmental constraints.
A key aspect of the development is continuous monitoring, regular assessment and an efficient mechanism to address any shortcomings which may come up during the execution. In fact, many projects announced in the past by different departments fail or don’t meet the target just because there is no efficient monitoring. It is imperative for the administration to have a monitoring mechanism that ensures implementation encompassing fixing various issues that crop up during the execution processes. There ought to be such a machismo that allows smooth execution of what has been planned at the highest official level. In fact, the higher authorities should continuously monitor the outcomes of developmental works from regular intervals. Serious efforts should be made in this direction and it can go a long way in improving governance. In a place where a 30 meters bridge takes decades due to tardy work by various government agencies, improving monitoring mechanisms at the highest level becomes all more imperative.
Also in an ecologically fragile place such as Kashmir Valley, unscientific measures aggravate the risk on various accounts and ought to be incorporated in scheme of things. The environmental concerns should be addressed on priority and without delay. There is also a need to calculate and incorporate issues pertaining to weather.