Budget proposals envisage strengthening of grassroots level infrastructure, rapid development: Dy CM

Jammu, Apr 29: Deputy Chief Minister, Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Tuesday chaired a meeting to review the progress on Capex Budget 2024-25 works besides discussing formulation of the Capex Budget Action Plan for 2025-26 fiscal.
Minister for Health & Medical Education, Sakina Itoo, Minister for Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Javed Ahmad Dar, Minister for Transport, Satish Sharma, Advisor to CM, Nasir Aslam Wani, Secretary PWD, Bhupinder Kumar besides senior officials of the concerned department attended the meeting.
A detailed discussion was held on budget proposals aimed at strengthening grassroots level infrastructure, ensuring rapid growth and development.
The Dy CM emphasized that the planning process should be integrated at departmental and district level to incorporate the whole government approach. He asserted that the focus of the department should be on completion of ongoing works rather than starting a large number of underfunded works. “The timeline for completion of new works taken up for execution during the financial year 2025-26 should be between one or two years, except mega projects in which the department can extend the timeline up to three years” he added.
Surinder Choudhary said that the work plan of the department should be based on tangible outcomes which should indicate the number of works to be completed and number of people to be benefited. He exhorted upon the department to ensure that the directions issued are strictly adhered to and feedback/priorities from the elected representatives as indicated during budget meetings, as feasible, shall be captured while framing the annual work plans. He also issued strict instructions to the higher authorities to take firm action against the contractors who cause unnecessary delays in project completion.
Javed Ahmad Dar, Sakina Itoo, Satish Sharma and Advisor to CM Nasir Aslam Wani also contributed their valuable suggestions for better functioning of the department in terms of finalizing works and their execution. They also apprised of some crucial works in their constituencies which needs utmost priority and completion at the earliest.
Earlier, Secretary PWD presented a comprehensive overview of the proposed Capex Budget through a detailed PowerPoint Presentation, highlighting key projects and financial allocations.
He highlighted the previous financial year’s achievements including 3410 Km road length macadamized under various sectors, 2763 works completed under UT Capex, 769 Km road length blacktopped under PMGSY, 498 schemes completed under road sector and 47 bridges completed under various schemes.