Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution and Tribal Affairs, Ch Zulfkar Ali, Friday chaired review meeting of District Development Board of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district at SKICC here.Minister for Rural Devlopment and Panchayati Raj, who is also MLA Lolab, Abdul Haq, Member Parliament, Fayaz Ahmad Mir, MLA Langate, Engineer Rashid, MLA Kupwara, Bashir Ahmad Dar, MLA Karnah, Raja Manzoor among other heads and senior senior officials attended the meeting.During the meeting, Ch Zulfkar Ali impressed upon officers to redouble their efforts for development of the district. He directed Director Tourism to work towards promotion of border tourism and include Teetwal, Keeran, Machil on boarder tourism map. He said that health sector in the border areas should be the “top most” priority and added that it has been guaranteed to the people by the government time and again.The Minister said that decisions taken by the Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed during earlier Board meeting were clear and concerned officers should work in the said direction on priority.
In the meeting status of commitments of the Chief Minister J&K during his tour to District Kupwara and decisions taken in the DDB meeting of Kupwara District held on 18 June 2015 under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, were also reviewed.Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner, Kupwara, Kumar Rajiv Ranjan, informed that 10 bridges have been completed by R&B while 5 are under construction by JKPCC. He said that 90 kms of roads have been fully macadamized.The DC also gave a brief with regard to scholarship and Sponsorship of economically weaker students in the district. Regarding Voluntary Teaching in Schools, he said the District Administration invited volunteers to teach in Govt. schools and the volunteers came to the District on their own from different states and were engaged in schools for teaching Maths, Science and Computers.He further said that Science-based workshops in Government Schools by Gyan Setu a Pune based NGO were organized in 11 different schools and Master trainers in the District were asked to replicate these practices in their zones.During the meeting officials also informed about certain important decisions taken in earlier DDB meeting, including sanction for construction of Maternity Hospital at Jaggarpora, construction of a new Conference Hall at District Headquarters, etc .