Arun Singh
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 5: Not giving a damn about directives of the Centre, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department has not set up any monitoring cell for inspecting the centrally-sponsored schemes in the state.
Sources told Early Times that the inspection of schemes during execution and thereafter forms an important part of the monitoring. "The Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) guidelines envisage monitoring of the minor irrigation schemes to be done by the state government themselves and the government was also required to ensure establishment of monitoring cells for monitoring of all the schemes," said sources.
They said that it seems that ignoring the guidelines, while executing the centrally sponsored schemes has become the habit of the state government, and when it comes to monitoring of these ongoing projects, the situation is worse.
Sources said senior officials of the I&FC Department are supposed to fix a targeted schedule of inspections at periodical levels and prepare inspection reports for submission to higher authorities. During the entire process the Assistant Executive Engineers (AEEs) are expected to show full commitment.
"As a matter of fact there was no such mechanism in place for conducting monitoring of the schemes. Also, monitoring cells were not established, nor inspection reports were prepared during the period from 2009-14," said sources.
The I&FC Department, on the other hand, has been blaming shortage of staff for not conducting the inspection. However, some officials claimed that minor irrigation schemes were monitored periodically and instructions issued were adhered to.
Meanwhile, AIBP guidelines had recommended the formation of water user associations for each scheme by involving the farmers, and on completion hand these over to the associations who would, in turn, be responsible for their day-to-day water management and maintenance. But no associations were formed and management/ maintenance of completed schemes continued to be done by the understaffed divisions themselves, said sources. No top official of the I&FC Department was available for comment. |
