A plan allocation of Rs 126.79 crore for Pulwama district was approved for the financial year 2018-19 at the District Development Board (DDB) meeting held under the chairmanship of Minister for Public Works Department, Naeem Akhter here today. The meeting was attended by Minister for Agriculture, Mohammad Khalil Band, Minister of State for Forests, Ecology, Animal & Sheep Husbandry, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Vice Chairman Gujjar and Bakerwal Advisory Board Gulzar Ahmad Khatana, Member Parliament Nazir Ahmad Laway, MLA Tral Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, Secretary State Sports Council, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, HoDs of various departments, Chief Engineers and all District officers besides other concerned officers.On the occasion, the chairman DDB Pulwama Naeem Akhter directed the RDD department to work in a convergent mode with different line departments in creating durable assets in the district. The chairman further directed the fisheries department to explore the possibility of Model Fish Pond in the district in convergence with rural department so that the young entrepreneurs can emulate this livelihood generating activities for the self-employment.He exhorted upon the officers to take the development projects on mission mode basis so that its fruition is cherished by the general public.The Minister said that Agriculture and its allied sectors are vital for growth of rural economy and have the potential to change the rural economy and should be targeted to tap their optimum potential on a sustainable basis.He also reiterated the commitment of the government to make the constituencies as nodal points of development and plan execution.
He also directed district administration to put on board the public representatives for plan execution. He also directed the district administration to make frequent field visits to all areas of the district to fulfil actual public demands. The legislators presented their demands before the chairman which among others included issues pertaining to RDD, PHE, PDD, healthcare etc.The chairman assured the legislators that all their grievances and demands will be given due priority.On the occasion, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Khalil Bandh asked the officials to expedite the compensation process to the land owners for Fruit Mandi Pulwama.For equipping District Hospital Pulwama with better equipments, Bandh directed for installing Dialysis machine, CT scan and other modern machines there besides solid waste management should be done on scientific lines.He also raised the issue of starting Post Graduation courses in Boys Degree College Pulwama. Highlighting the importance of Pulwama ciricular road, the agriculture Minister asked officers to extend the construction of road uptoChatpora by I km. He also called for early completion of Dogripora – Reshipora bridge.Earlier, District Development Commissioner, Ghulam Mohammad Dar apprised the Chairman about various developmental activities undergoing in the district while the minister took a comprehensive review of the progress made in various projects and decisions of the last board meeting and took stock of sectoral, physical and financial achievements registered in the District Plan 2017-18 and stressed for timely completion of ongoing works in the district.It was given out that against the approved allocation of Rs 130.03 crores, Rs 79.03 crores were made availableand out of which an expenditure of Rs.76.80 corers have been spend on various developmental and welfare activities, constituting 97.18 per cent expenditure.The meeting was informed that a large number of initiatives have been taken under which among others include beautification of Pulwama town for which DPR is under active consideration with the government, Shifting of Sumos, matadors, passenger buses to new bus stand, execution of National Saffron Mission in a time bound manner, conducting of result-oriented mass public contact programmes, etc.
Taking a stock of the R&B Department, it was informed that developmental works amounting to Rs 1590.00 lacs have been executed up to the fiscal 2017-18 which include completion of 8 major bridges including Mugalpora, Muchpona, Rangmulla, Chatripora, Rajpora, Zahidbagh, Hajibal and Chandrgam Tral and macdamization of road length of 271.67 km which among other include prestigious road projects like Circular road, Pulwama-Lassipora Road, Awantipora Tral via Darsara, Awantipora Tral via Nowdal road.With respect to the construction of Dogripora and Reshipora bridges, DDC appraised the house that the two bridges were taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.17.00 cores and Rs.10.93 crores respectively.While appreciating the performance of R&B department, the chairman directed the concerned executing agencies to complete the remaining works in a time bound manner.The meeting was informed that under PHE, against the availability of Rs 4.01crore, Rs 3.3 crore have been spent up to the fiscal 2017-18.The meeting was also informed that few LIS Water supply schemes like Galbugh, Dugam WSS are yet to be completed because of paucity of funds owing to the Cost Overrun. The board recommended that additional funding should be met from the state sector. The board unanimously decided to create a Transformer Bank in the district to meet out the urgent requirement of transformers in case of fault occurs in the district and for the same Chairman announced Rs 10 lakh, MLA Pulwama, Pampore and Tral announced Rs 20 lakh each while Member Parliament Nazir Ahmad Laway announced Rs 10 Lakh for the bank.