J&K govt delivers good governance through administrative reforms: Home Ministry

Taking a slew of reforms,the J&K government restructured the state's Power Department and it was divided into five autonomous corporations with independent mandates and responsibilities with new impetus on improved services, better consumer responsiveness and stable and predictable revenue mechanism.

The second most important reforms was the ‘land registration process’ which was moved to executive from judiciary and under the new set up of Revenue Administration, and for “Land Registration Process’ was shifted to the newly created Department of Registration.

A total of 77 Sub-Registrars have been appointed and nearly 25,000 registrations carried out so far. Over Rs 100 crore have been realized as stamp duty and registration fees. The entire registration process is being digitized and moved online.

Parallely, the process of stamp duty administration is also being fully computerized and e stamping rules have been framed. This represents a major structural change that will simplify and demystify the land revenue administration. This in turn will lead to ease for the consumers and a robust check on fraudulent practices.

Similarly, the urban local bodies were restructured under municipal reforms and the civil works of these Bodies have been entrusted to the Public Works (R&B) Department for faster execution.

Municipal Corporations of Jammu and Srinagar have been strengthened for speedy execution of works. Street light functioning has been transferred to the Municipal Corporations for better upkeep and maintenance.

The Municipal Committees and Councils have been empowered to accord administrative approvals for the projects upto Rs 5 crores and given full powers to enter into contracts for purchase of stores supplies and services into contract.

Likewise, the financial powers of Municipal Committees, Municipal Councils and Director Local Bodies have been substantially revised to give a fillip to the execution of developmental activities.

Accrual Based Double Entry Accounting System (ABDEAS) has been introduced in urban local bodies to bring about transparency and consistency.

Under the new administrative set up, the J&K Right to Information Act 2009 was repealed and Central RTI Act 2005 came into enforcement with all its provisions.

The Jammu & Kashmir State Vigilance Commission Act, 2011 has been replaced and the Anti-Corruption Bureau of J&K brought under the direct supervision of Central Vigilance Commission. These measures will help to introduce a regime of transparency and accountability to control corruption through strict vigil by these agencies.

Similarly, for speedy resolution of service matters of Government employees, the 18th Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has been set up for the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh on June 8 this year.

The Crime wing of the Police Department has been reorganised and restructured to focus on economic offences and cyber crimes.

The same structural reforms have been carried out in Departments of Industries,Tourism,Finance and Technical education while sub departments with overlapping functions have been merged or downsized, people facing activities have been upgraded and strengthened,the officials said.