By IANS
Ranchi : A central government team led by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar visiting Jharkhand indicated Saturday it was unhappy with the slow pace of development in the state but assured it would provide all help to improve the situation.
“The centre will assist the government in development work in the state,” Chandrashekhar told reporters here.
Asked about the level of satisfaction over utilisation of central funds for various schemes, he said: “We do not believe in post mortem. The state government has assured us it find ways to utilise funds better.”
“There is a law and order problem in the state,” the country’s top bureaucrat noted.
The high-level team reviewed rural development schemes, roads, drinking water availability, healthcare and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act with officials of various departments in the state government.
According to official sources, the central team was unhappy with state agencies implementing the central funded schemes.
“A task force will be constituted to monitor the development work in the state. Even we (central team) will review on regular basis the development work. In next one year our focus will be development issues,” said Chandrashekhar.
He agreed that the development work in villages was hampered due to the absence of elected local bodies. No panchayat elections have taken place here for three decades.
“The central and state governments will together try to expedite the cases pending in the Supreme Court to ensure that panchayat elections are held at the earliest.”
The cabinet secretary said a similar review meeting would take place in neighbouring Chhattisgarh soon.