E-Paper
World Bank asks HP govt to honour IDP agreement
The World Bank had approved $80-mn loan in February for the integrated development project for water management, increasing farm productivity in HP
After the transfer of two key officials of the integrated project for source sustainability and climate resilient rain-fed agriculture in Himachal Pradesh, the World Bank wrote to the state government requesting them to honour the terms and conditions of the agreement of the project.
The World Bank had approved an $80 million loan in February this year for the integrated development project (IDP) that aimed at improving water management practices and increasing agricultural productivity in rural areas.
The central government, Himachal government and the World Bank had signed the loan agreement on March 11. The project is to be implemented in 428 panchayats in 10 districts of the state, benefiting over 4 lakh stakeholders.
One of the conditions of the agreement was that the tenure of the key staff of the project should be three years or more. However, the state government transferred the chief project director and the executive officer of the project within six months of signing the agreement.
“Reference is made to the government orders to transfer both the chief project director (No FFE A(B)6-14/2020-II, dated September 5, 2020) and executive director (No FFE-A(B)6-14/2020-II, dated September 8, 2020) of the integrated project for source sustainability and climate-resilient rain-fed agriculture in HP and to the letter from the additional chief secretary (forests) of the HP government to the department of economic affairs (No FFE-B-F (5)9/2016-Pt-II, dated December 13, 2019) confirming the project’s readiness for negotiations,” reads the letter from Junaid Kamal Ahmad, World Bank’s country director in India, to state chief secretary Anil Khachi.
“We note that in the referenced letter, the HP government agreed with the department of economic affairs as part of the readiness criteria of the project, that the ‘tenure of key staff should be, to the extent possible, three years or more’,” states the letter.
“We also note that the project is not yet fully operational and is in a critical start-up phase. As such, we are concerned that changes in project leadership at this time may have a considerable adverse impact on the pace and efficiency of project implementation. Given the above, we would like to request that you honor the aforementioned agreement,” it added.
When contacted, forest minister Rakesh Pathania said that the condition was not a must and, that the ‘government was forced to change the officers as there had been no progress in the project.’
He said that any project is implemented with the consultation of public representatives and public participation but no such steps were taken by those at the helm of the affairs.
“I can’t overlook and would not tolerate non-performance in my departments,” he said, adding that the World Bank will be apprised of the circumstances in which the officers were changed.
