It’s going to be bouquets and brickbat all the way for Uttarakhand chief minister B C Khanduri when he holds a crucial Cabinet meeting on December 8 to take a thorough review of all his government’s decisions as well as developmental schemes.
After he took over the reigns of the hill state on September 11, the state Cabinet has taken nearly 22 crucial decisions in broader sense which includes the much-hyped Lokayukta Bill, which was praised by none other than social activist Anna Hazare.
In addition to this, Khanduri has also made over 60 public announcements.
With the Assembly elections only two months away, Khanduri thinks that it is now time for a thorough review of all the Cabinet decisions and development schemes which he claims are directly related to the common people.
“Our assessment shows that out of the 22 Cabinet decisions, nearly 18 have already been implemented in all true spirit,” claimed a top government official. In the remaining four, the official claimed a good beginning has been made.
On the flipside, Khanduri is not satisfied with the pace of development schemes. This became evident when chief secretary Subhash Kumar also expressed his serious displeasure at the tardy progress of releasing funds for development schemes at a high level meeting at the secretariat here on Thursday to review the progress of annual plan.
Kumar directed all the secretaries and principal secretaries that besides releasing maximum funds in the current month under the annual plan, they should also bring about the desired changes in the status of expenditure.
He expressed his “intense disquiet” over the release of funds as well as their utilisation in forest, education and power departments.
Kumar said the CM has expressed unhappiness over the progress of the annual plan and that its review would be carried out in the next Cabinet meeting. He directed the officials to carry out a review of their respective departments and submit all information regarding the latest status by December 5.
Kumar said the chief minister would also conduct a review of actions taken by different departments by way of compliance with reference to the announcements made by him on November 9.
At the meeting, additional chief secretary Alok Jain said that since finance department is taking prompt action in releasing funds, a check would be imposed on the tendency to spend money at the end of the financial year.
