Srinagar: As many as 34 projects approved under the Prime Minister’s Development Package(PMDP) for Jammu & Kashmir way back in 2015 are yet to be completed, raising questions on performance of agencies involved in their execution.
Details collected by the Precious Kashmir reveal that 34 projects of the development package are at different stages of implementation in J&K.
Against 54 projects of PMDP in the Union Territory, 20 have been completed while remaining 34 are at different stages of implementation.
On November 7, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled Rs 80,068 crore package for infrastructure building and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure hit by 2014 floods. The package was unveiled when PDP-BJP government was in power-sharing alliance in J&K.
The package comprised of 64 projects. Out of which 54 are in J&K UT and 11 in Ladakh UT.
It is worthwhile to mention that Central agencies as well as J&K administration has come under criticism from different quarters for sluggish pace in implementation of the package.
The projects under the package are being reviewed by the Prime Minister’s office, Home Ministry and different agencies of central government.
In 2017, the National Institution for Transforming India, known as NITI Aayog pointed out that work on some developmental projects taken up under the Prime Minister’s Development Package is “very slow”. “…The work under some projects needs to be sped up as the pace is very slow,” reads the report prepared by the NITI Aayog after conducting physical verification of projects taken up for permanent restoration of infrastructure damaged by the deluge.
Under the PMDP, Rs 2000 crore were earmarked for restoration of public infrastructure hit by the devastating deluge.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has also repeatedly asked the executing agencies to speed up the work on projects sanctioned under PMDP.
