HADP District Ranking: Kashmir fares better than Jammu; Kathua district bags top slot

Jammu, July 12: Kathua district, being in news for disturbing developments for some time, has earned for itself a place of pride by procuring top slot in district-wise ranking of J&K government’s ambitious Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) evaluation report.

Kulgam and Anantnag districts bagged second and third ranking respectively.

On the whole, Kashmir districts performed better than their Jammu counterparts with Pulwama (4), Bandipora (5), Shopian (7), Budgam (8) and Ganderbal (9) figuring in the ranking of first ten districts.

From Jammu region, Udhampur district and Rajouri district scored sixth and tenth slot respectively.

Jammu district showed a dismal performance as it was placed at 19th slot with only Kupwara district figuring behind it while Srinagar district was at 12th place.

The physical and financial milestones attained under the HADP, along with other ongoing development projects of the department, were evaluated and assessed by the Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production Department (APD), Shaliendra Kumar on Friday.

Besides HADP, Capex and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and Detail Project Reports (DPRs) of JKCIP for the financial year 2024-25 too were evaluated during the meeting.

In the district-wise ranking in June 2024 vis-à-vis HADP implementation, Kathua bagged overall first place scoring eight points under the head “Movement” and the highest 76 percent approvals.

Kulgam and Anantnag both had 74 percent approval percentage.

Though in segregation, few other districts performed better than Kathua yet it was its overall performance on different scales of evaluation which earned it top place in the ranking.

On scale of application, Kathua had 13 percent coverage while six other districts viz., Anantnag, Pulwama, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Rajouri and Srinagar districts were ahead of it with 14 percent, 15 percent, 16 percent, 14 percent, 15 percent and 16 percent coverage respectively.

Similarly in case of pendency, Kathua had 13 percent pendency rate while Kulgam, Anantnag, Pulwama and Budgam districts had lesser pendency rate i.e., 5 percent, 12 percent, 7 percent and 9 percent respectively. Shopian district also had a 13 percent pendency rate.

In case of enrolment and completion (under skilling head), Kathua scored 38 percent and 24 percent respectively while Kulgam and Anantnag districts had 42 percent and 50 percent enrolment respectively. Their completion rate was 15 percent and 3 percent respectively.

No wonder, Kathua’s progress report mentioned about its significant improvement in its approval rates and course completions.

“The district should maintain this momentum by continuing to focus on reducing pendency and increasing application processing efficiency,” was the guideline for the top performer (Kathua).