Srinagar, Mar 12: With Jammu and Kashmir racing against time to transform its infrastructure landscape, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today convened a marathon review meeting on the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) scheme, putting departments under the microscope for lagging progress, unspent funds, and execution hiccups that could jeopardize future central aid.
Flanked by Advisor to the CM Nasir Aslam Wani, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, and a roster of administrative secretaries from key sectors like PWD, health, education, and urban development, Omar dove deep into a department-wise audit. The agenda spanned physical milestones—roads paved, schools built, hospitals upgraded—against financial drawdowns, spotting reform gaps and opportunities to accelerate under the Centre’s capital push, designed to supercharge UT economies post-Article 370.
“Expedite expenditures, resolve every bottleneck, enforce timelines and quality standards—no room for complacency,” the Chief Minister directed sharply, zeroing in on projects from highway expansions linking Srinagar to Jammu, rural water schemes quenching parched villages, to power grid upgrades tackling Kashmir’s blackouts. He hammered the mantra: maximize fund utilization, surrender the bare minimum—or risk empty coffers next fiscal year, as Delhi ties fresh sanctions to proven spending track records.
Omar’s push comes amid J&K’s delicate balancing act: leveraging SASCI’s Rs 1 lakh crore national pool (with UTs getting priority slices) to bridge urban-rural divides, create jobs, and signal stability to investors wary of past turmoil. Delays, he cautioned, aren’t just bureaucratic blunders—they’re self-sabotage, potentially slashing allocations when every rupee fuels the post-election momentum his NC-Congress government rides.
Senior officers pledged quick fixes: tender accelerations, third-party audits, and 24/7 monitoring dashboards. The meet ended with action plans assigned, follow-ups slated weekly—a no-nonsense blueprint to turn SASCI from paper promises to concrete gains. For a region eyeing self-reliance amid national growth stories, Omar’s wake-up call underscores one truth: speed or stall, J&K’s future hangs in the balance
