In graft fight, Jammu and Kashmir lets people e-track funds

NEW DELHI: The J&K Govt, in a significant crackdown against corruption and to ensure transparency in utilisation of public funds allocated for development works at all levels of administration, has introduced the Budget Estimation Allocation Monitoring System (BEAMS) which puts release of funds for various works in public domain.

All one has to do is go to the J&K BEAMS website — beamsjk.gov.in — and click on the ‘Empowerment’ icon. Empowerment, incidentally, is an acronym for ‘Enabling Monitoring and Public Overview of Works being Executed and Resources for Meaningful Transparency’. The click will throw up a dashboard showing the complete list of ongoing works in the UT at the district, block and village level, along with the amount approved, amount released and the expenditure.

As per the website, BEAMS is an application for online budgeting and flow of resources. It is designed to capture flow of funds to each individual project under execution on real-time basis. Citizens can view projects that are being funded in their area. The J&K government has launched the ‘Empowerment’ initiative to enable people’s participation during execution of projects. A senior J&K government official said that the online tracking system for public works in the UT was to let people at the village level see what is happening in their area. “We have made the UT of J&K fully transparent and this has reduced corruption immensely. I have checked systems in other states and UTs. No one has such a transparent system,” the officer claimed. (Agency)