Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Saturday reviewed a United Nations Development Programme roadmap aimed at aligning the Union Territory’s annual budget with the Sustainable Development Goals, directing the Planning Department to build a comprehensive, outcome-based framework linking government schemes and resources to measurable development targets.
The review meeting, held in Srinagar, brought together Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Shailendra Kumar, along with the Commissioner Secretaries of Information Technology and Social Welfare, the Secretary for Agriculture, the Director of Planning, and senior officers from several departments. The UNDP team presented a preliminary roadmap for weaving SDG considerations into J&K’s budgeting and public financial management systems.
Dulloo asked the Planning Department to set up a dedicated team to work alongside UNDP and prepare a detailed roadmap identifying the interventions required under each SDG to meet targets over the coming years. He called for mapping both Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Union Territory government schemes against the relevant SDGs, so that each scheme’s contribution to specific goals is clearly established, and directed officials to flag gaps that may need fresh interventions or additional resources.
The Chief Secretary stressed that meeting the SDGs requires coordinated action across departments rather than scattered, standalone efforts, and urged officials to make the fullest use of existing schemes while examining where extra budgetary support may be necessary. He also directed that the exercise identify specific target populations and beneficiaries, to keep implementation focused and outcomes measurable. The goal, he said, is to move the process beyond simple tagging of budget lines toward a practical, time-bound and results-driven action plan.
Kumar echoed the emphasis on accountability, calling for every scheme to be assigned a clear role in achieving its respective SDG targets and for a realistic assessment of how much progress each can deliver on the ground. He also flagged the need for capacity building among officers and departmental staff to ensure the SDG-aligned budgeting framework is implemented effectively, and asked that the exercise begin immediately so it can feed into next year’s budget cycle.
The UNDP proposal envisages a three-year programme built around three components: an SDG Budget Tagging Framework covering all 20 departments and district budgets; a web-based SDG-IFMIS portal integrated with the Integrated Financial Management Information System to track and visualise budget allocations against SDG targets; and an Output-Outcome Monitoring Framework for institutional capacity building. Officials say a functioning portal would allow quarterly reporting of SDG-linked expenditure, helping departments assess whether their spending is translating into results and giving policymakers a clearer basis for redirecting resources toward underserved areas.
The push builds on progress J&K has already logged. According to the NITI Aayog SDG India Index 2023-24, the Union Territory’s composite SDG score climbed from 53 in 2018 to 74 in 2023-24, making it the second-fastest improving Union Territory in the country. J&K has also set up an SDG Coordination Centre with technical backing from NITI Aayog and UNDP, alongside finalised State and District Indicator Frameworks and a live monitoring dashboard, laying much of the institutional groundwork the new budgeting exercise will build on.
