31 per cent of PM's JK package released

Thirty-one per cent of the Prime Minister's Rs 80,000-crore development package for Jammu and Kashmir has been released to the state government and 25 per cent of the total amount utilised so far, officials said today.

In March, a parliamentary standing committee had said in a report that the progress on implementing the Prime Minister's development package had been slow and a "poor outcome" had been achieved in the past 12 months.

Out of the total package, Rs 62,991 crore (79 per cent) has been sanctioned, Rs 24,443 crore (31 per cent) has been released and Rs 20,417 crore (25 per cent) has been utilised so far, a Home Ministry official said.

The Prime Minister had announced a development package of Rs 80,068 crore for Jammu and Kashmir on November 7, 2015.

The package consists of 63 major development projects being implemented by 15 central ministries and the state government.

During the period, 11 review meetings have been conducted by the central government so far, the official said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, in the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha, had said the most of the projects were still under progress.

"Observing this pattern of poor outcome in the past twelve months, the committee recommends that the Ministry of Home Affairs intensify efforts to achieve measurable outcome under the PM's Development Package by speeding up the work in the upcoming fiscal and implement all the projects at the earliest," the panel had said in its report.