Srinagar, Aug 20 (KNO): In a glaring instance of apathy, the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA), headed by Members of Parliament, have held only 57 meetings in J&K during the past five years against the mandatory requirement of 400 such meetings.
As per guidelines of the programme, each district-level committee is mandated to hold four such meetings per year. Given that Jammu & Kashmir comprises 20 districts, this translates to a total of 80 meetings each year. So, over a span of five years, 400 DISHA committee meetings should have taken place in the Union Territory.
According to a report titled – Effective Functioning of DISHA Committees- which was tabled by the Department-related parliamentary standing committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in Lok Sabha on Monday, only 57 DISHA committee meetings have taken place across the UT in last five financial years.
The report, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), reveals that eight such meetings took place in 2020-21, 10 in 2021-22, 20 in 2022-23, eight in 2023-24 and 11 in 2024-25.
It further reveals that only three such meetings have taken place in J&K during the ongoing financial year.
These district-level committees’ act as watchdogs of key central sector programmes and schemes. Currently, 96 schemes of 35 union ministries are covered by DISHA Committees.
The report laid in the Parliament on Monday also reveals that Jammu and Kashmir has not yet constituted a State-level DISHA Committee.
As per guidelines, the chairperson of the state-level DISHA Committee shall be the Chief Minister of the State/UTs with legislature and the Minister of Rural Development of the State shall be designated as co-chairperson—(KNO)