Last Updated on March 25, 2022 at 10:52 am
Call it a lackadaisical attitude of the concerned officers or bad luck of border dwellers, Jammu and Kashmir administration have kept them away from their valid rights. J&K has failed to optimally use the funds sanctioned by the Government of India under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) during the past few years. Due to non-utilization of funds, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has not even released funds from last two years.
As per reports, in 2018-19, an amount of Rs 84 crore was released to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir but only Rs 75.76 crore were used for conducting developmental activities in the border areas. During 2019-20, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released an amount of Rs 114.37 crore under BADP for J&K and Ladakh but only Rs 31.41 crore were used.
Rs 91.2 crore was not spent by J&K administration thus, MHA stopped funding under BADP for the financial year 2020-21. Moreover, for current financial year funds of Rs. 16 crore were released only for Ladakh. But the Utilization Certificates are yet to be submitted by Ladakh administration to MHA, as per Daily Excelsior.
The purpose for BADP is to cater the special developmental needs of the people living in remote areas near the border and to provide essential infrastructure in the border areas. Under this scheme, funds are allocated to the governments for the works approved in their Annual Action Plan.
