Govt directs Admin Secys to file action taken reports on agenda of alliance

The government has directed the Administrative Secretaries to file the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) on the work done by departments on PDP-BJP coalition’s Agenda of Alliance (AoA).
According to officials in a recent meeting which was convened by the chief secretary, B B Vyas, ATRs were sought as not much has been done on promises which were made out to people.
The directions come after a cabinet sub-committee (CSC) headed by Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh, reviewed the AoA. The CSC had met in April following which the directions were issued.
Under the governance reforms in the AoA it was envisaged to empower the panchayats.
However, five year term of the previous panchayats ended in July last year and the government has failed to conduct elections.
Secretary Rural Development department, Rafiq Ahmad, told Kashmir Post that the department is mulling to bring amendment through an ordinance in the Panchayati Raj Act to nominate an election authority.
He said any time frame for the elections cannot be given out at this stage.
It was also promised in AoA to grant greater autonomy to Vigilance Commission and to re-designate it as Transparency Commission.
But Commissioner Secretary, General Administration Department (GAD), Khurshid Ahmad Shah, said the government has not moved any proposal to rename the Commission as of now.
The AoA had also laid down that the land given to the forces on lease, license and taken over under the Land Acquisition Act would be returned to the rightful legal owners. However, not much progress has been made on this as well.
Principal Secretary, Home, R K Goyal, said the land transfer was an ongoing process and government has taken up land compensation cases of people, whose land has been acquired by the forces.
The Home department data, however, reveals that in previous financial year only 11 cases were settled in which the land was returned to their original owners.
The AoA had also announced to grant scheduled tribe (ST) status to chopans and paharis along with creation of a scheduled tribe Ministry for the welfare of STs.
Special Secretary, social welfare department, Rifat Arif, said the department has mooted a proposal for granting ST status to chopans and paharis which is being discussed.
AoA had also proposed to constitute a delimitation commission for the delimitation of legislative assembly constituencies.
The government has not been able to do anything on this. There is a Supreme Court guideline of 2010 which has put on freeze the delimitation of assembly constituencies in the state till 2026.
The PDP-BJP government had also proposed creation of model business villages like model basmati village in Jammu Also the towns with population size of 30,000 to 99,999 were to be identified and turned into cities. However the identification of such towns has not been done as yet by the Housing and Urban development department.
Moreover, the fully funded employment package for educated and semiskilled youth was proposed under AOA to ensure 100% female literacy.
Sources in the finance department said that no work has been initiated on this.
The AoA had also spelled out to construct a tunnel on the Mughal road for better connectivity. State government had taken up the matter with Central government, but National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation has only started a process to prepare the feasibility report.