“Chief Minister’s concern on working of BEAMS portal must not go unnoticed. His remark is a clear message of zero tolerance to non performers in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division who oversee development projects and public services.”
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently reviewed practices and procedures of governance adopted in Jammu & Kashmir and directed officers therein to take some pro-active measures to bring about perceptible change in both the accountability and as well as the delivery of public services across the departments in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. Voicing concerns on both the accountability and as well as completion of development projects in given timelines Chief Minister directed completion of developmental projects well before the deadlines set for their completion end. This had obviously reference to the delay caused in the completion of a flyover on Sanantnagar-Bemina bye pass flyover in Srinagar and significantly Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chowdhry has directed stringent action against the construction agency to whom the contract for the said flyover has been allotted. Delay in the construction of Sanantnag flyover is just one instance as otherwise many infrastructural facilities including hospital and school buildings may have missed many deadlines without coming to the notice of ministers and administrative secretaries of the concerned departments. The completion of the developmental projects in given timelines won’t just accelerate the pace of work on key developmental projects besides generating a sense of accountability within the departments directly or indirectly connected with both the development of infrastructural facilities and as well as delivery of public services. As Chief Minister pointed out that BEAMS portal is not used for the purposes for which it was launched a message of zero tolerance against the non-performance has been delivered to the officers and official overseeing the execution of development projects and delivery of public services in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. Notably BEAMS portal in Jammu & Kashmir concerns Budget, Estimation, Allocation & Monitoring System.
“Government departments use public service portals to communicate. However, these portals often crash, disrupting public services and delaying developmental projects. The Chief Minister is trying to build a more accountable and efficient governance structure, but for this to work, other government officials must also support his vision of a more responsive and responsible governance structure in Jammu & Kashmir.”
While fact remains that BEAMS portal is a computerised web based application used for preparation and authorization of budget, worth mention is this fact also that BEAMS portal enables online flow of resources the departments can allocate funds to their field offices through this system. Since Chief Minister himself hold the portfolio of Finance Department the working of BEAMS of portal has caught his attention for the obvious reasons as otherwise many public service delivery portals are not working efficiently. In fact most of the public services are run on portal but most of them crashing from time to time the people at the grassroots level aren’t getting the information they need about the programs launched for their welfare. collaboration and communication among various government entities. The public service delivery portals launched in recent years are sources of communication between different Government Departments and their frequent crashing as such breaks down the routine working of the both the public service delivery system and as well as the execution of developmental projects in given timelines. The Chief Minister’s proactive initiative shows his deepening interest in building a culture of accountability and efficiency within the government but unless and until other top functionaries of the Government also don’t tend to work on the Chief Minister’s agenda of developing a more responsive and responsible governance structure the systems of governance won’t improve in Jammu & Kashmir Government.
