District Development Board meetings have lost meaning: CPI(M)

Jammu and Kashmir unit of CPI(M) today expressed concern over "non-implementation" of decisions taken in the District Development Board (DDB) meetings across the state and said these meetings have lost meaning in absence of a political will.
"There is no doubt that most of the times many important decisions on development of districts are taken in these meetings, but the lack of a proper follow-up restrict these decisions to mere paper work," CPI (M) state secretary M Y Tarigami said in a statement here.
Tarigami said many important decisions taken in the board meetings are not implemented, preventing the developmental schemes from reaching to people.

"Projects undertaken under various schemes like MGNREGA, IAY and PMGSY are not completed in stipulated time and financial targets proposed in these meetings do not yield the desired results," the CPI(M) leader said.
"In absence of a political will, these meetings have lost meaning," he added.
He said the district plan allocations have also not been increased as sought by MLAs from time to time.

"Though the allocation under state plan may have been increased to a certain level, no significant increment has been made in district plans," he said.
"District boards were meant to formulate and analyse the plan and non plan budget, lay down the policy guidelines for the block development councils and Panchayats and coordinate poverty and employment generation, but unfortunately there has been hardly any serious effort from the government to financially empower these boards," he said.

"It is unfortunate that district allocations are so insignificant that these important institutions have been rendered futile," he said.
"One fails to understand that what the members of these boards are supposed to decide about when the allocations are so meagre and the decisions taken are not implemented?" he asked.