In what is being seen as a crucial administrative step, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has divested the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh of existing powers for granting approval of schemes or projects up to Rs 100 crore and the Administrative Secretaries of up to Rs 20 crore.
An order to this effect has been issued by Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Kavinder Gupta on the basis of instructions received from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.Powers of the Lieutenant Governor to accord administrative approval and expenditure up to Rs 100 crore and the Administrative Secretaries up to Rs 20 crore have also been revised. These approvals will now be granted by the MHA.
The Chief Engineers, Head of Departments including the Deputy Commissioners and Superintending Engineers have also been restrained from exercising delegated powers of sanctioning individual works between Rs 3 crore to Rs 10 crore. All these powers will now be exercised by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
Most significant is withdrawal of the powers of Head of Department including Deputy Commissioners, who act as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Leh and Kargil Hill Development Councils for sanctioning individual works up to Rs 5 crore. These powers have also gone to the MHA.
Pertinently, the Leh Hill Council has ceased to exist after completing of five-year term because of delay in elections, the Kargil Hill Council is in the place. Powers of the Leh Hill Council have been assigned to the Deputy Commissioner Leh.Powers of the Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers for sanction of individual works up to Rs 10 crore and Rs 3 crore respectively have also been given to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“All new proposals for appraisal and approval of projects/schemes shall be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs for necessary approval. All proposals to be submitted to the MHA for appraisal of new projects/schemes including administrative approval and expenditure sanction shall be routed through the Planning Development & Monitoring Department, Ladakh,’’ the order read.It, however, clarified that all ongoing schemes/project works including the works where administrative approval has already been accorded or tendered or completed prior to issuance of the MHA order, shall continue to be governed under earlier delegation of powers.
The Contract Committee after approval of the LG will grant contracts for individual works above Rs 40 crore and up to Rs 100 crore subject to issuance of administrative approval and expenditure sanction by the MHA only. This was the case previously as well.
The Contract Committee will grant contracts for individual works up to Rs 40 crore, the Chief Engineers up to Rs 10 crore, Superintendent Engineers up to Rs 3 crore, the Executive Engineer up to Rs 2 crore and the Assistant Executive Engineer up to Rs 1 crore subject to issuance of administrative approval and expenditure sanction by the MHA only.
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