Principal Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Department, Dheeraj Gupta today chaired a meeting to review the progress in transfer of Engineering Wings of the Urban Local Bodies, here at Civil Secretariat.He also gave several directions to the concerned authorities to complete the process in next 10 days and build capacities of the ULBs to undertake reforms.It may be recalled that the Administrative Council had recently ordered Abolition of the Engineering Wings of the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies, Jammu and Directorate of Urban Local Bodies, Kashmir and their transfer to the Jammu Municipal Corporation and the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to ensure speedy execution of works across the ULBs in the UT of J&K and to bring the efficiency and transparency in the delivery of services. The Administrative Council has also ordered execution of civil works of Urban Local bodies through respective Divisions/Sub-Divisions of the Public Work (R&B) Department.Further, it was also ordered that the prioritization and identification of works in their respective jurisdictions by the concerned Urban Local Bodies shall be in accordance with the guidelines and norms of the respective schemes and as per the prescribed ceiling. The Administrative approval for these works shall be accorded by these Urban Local Bodies as prescribed up to the ceiling laid down. The funds for the schemes and projects will be released to the Urban Local Bodies for further release to the concerned Division/Sub-Division of PW (R&B) after assessment of the stage wise progress of the work(s).
The meeting was attended by the Commissioner JMC, Chief Engineer, PWD(R&B) Jammu, Director ULB, Jammu, Director Finance and Director Planning H&UDD. Commissioner, SMC, Director ULB Kashmir and SE, PWD(R&B), Srinagar and other senior officers of the H&UDD attended the meeting through video conferencing from SMC office, Srinagar.The Principal Secretary issued directions to the Directors, ULB Kashmir/Jammu and Chief Engineers R&B Kashmir/Jammu to expedite the transfer of works and handing and taking over the relevant records immediately without any further delay. “The transfer of all 76 ULBs shall be on fast track and completed within next 10 days by 24th February, 2020. This would ensure that the transfers are smooth and fast and the pace of execution of the ongoing and new works does not get delayed and hampered” he directed.The Chief Engineers R&B Kashmir and Jammu were asked to issue necessary directions for completion of ongoing works, as per the laid down norms. It was also noticed that till now, in terms of decision of the Administrative Council, the funds for these ongoing and new projects will be released by the ULBs themselves, they will have to be provided with the requisite funds in advance as the CEOs/Eos are not authorized to operate the treasuries. The Directors of ULBs will accordingly submit the proposal for advance drawl of the funds and their transfer to the respective ULBs so that the matter could be taken with the Finance Department and the funds flow will also to be smooth.It was also decided that the Director ULB, Jammu and Director ULB, Kashmir shall prepare training modules for the elected representatives and the staff of these ULBs to strengthen their capacities in decision making and implementation of various reforms and initiatives.