Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired separate meetings to finalize Budget Estimates for 2021-22 and revised estimates of current budget of Cooperative , Agriculture & allied Departments.The meeting related to agriculture and allied departments was attended by senior officers of Agriculture, Sericulture, SKUAST Jammu, SKUAST Kashmir, JKAgros, CAD Jammu and others through video conferencing.During the meeting, threadbare discussion was held to finalize RE CAPEX/Revenue for 2020-21 & proposed estimates for 2021-22. Navin K Choudhary exhorted upon the officers to lay special focus on utilization of funds released under CAPEX/Revenue & ensure handsome expenditure before formulation of proposed estimates for 2021-22.Navin Choudhary discussed activity wise capital expenditure of agriculture and allied sectors and laid stress on realization of targets and spending the resources strictly under the budgetary provisions.The meeting also discussed several innovative ways which can be adopted for enhancing the crop productivity besides developing other infrastructure to obtain progressive information related to these sectors.The officers of Kashmir province attend the meeting through Video Conference.
Later, the Principal Secretary chaired another meeting to discuss the Budget Estimates and Revised Estimates of Cooperative Department.Registrar Cooperatives Societies, J&K Asif Hamid Khan,alongwith other senior officers of Cooperative Department attended the meeting.The Principal Secretary advised the participating officers to consider consolidation of different schemes of the Department into a single scheme and adjust the proposed amount .under various heads as per instructions of the Government. It was also advised by the chair that there should be no hike in administrative expenses being proposed for the next financial year unless the same has full justification.He also advised to work out the proposal of distribution of funds under the schemes ‘Managerial Subsidy’ and ‘Special Assistance’ to Cooperative Societies only after assessing various parameters like functional status, profit as reflected in audit report, and consider conducting quick audit of Societies in Jammu District for determining the financial position of the Societies.The principal Secretary desired revised Budget proposal as per discussions held. During the meeting it was also discussed to consider the proposal of merger of Cooperative Banks operating in Jammu Division after getting consultancy/expert services and examination of their Balance Sheets.