The Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies Nawang Rigzin Jora has reiterated government’s resolve to provide better civic amenities to newly developed towns including Surankote in Poonch district which has seen rapid urbanization over the years in an unplanned manner.Concluding his two days tour to Border districts of Rajouri and Poonch Mr. Jora instructed officers of the Department to prepare master plan of Surankote town. He said services of experts with proven stake in the field be hired to prepare the master plan in the first go so that civic amenities are provided to the locals in a planned manner. He directed that urgent steps to construct garbage dumping site be undertaken by the MCs in close consultation and coordination with the District Administration. He asked the Deputy Commissioner, Poonch to help MCs in finding suitable piece of land for the purpose.Mr. Jora reviewed threadbare working of the Municipal Committees of Poonch district and asked the officers to arrange scientific disposal of garbage.
It was disclosed during the meeting that under District Plan allocation an amount of Rs.17 lacs have been utilized while execution of 13 no of different nature of urban development works in two towns of District Poonch during 2012-13 and Rs.12.75 lacs earmarked for current financial year under District Sector.Similarly under the State Plan an amount of Rs.28.74 lacs utilized for execution of 18 different natures of urban development works in Poonch and Surankote MCs jurisdiction during 2012-13 under IDMT, Street Lighting schemes of Urban Development Sector of State Plan. During the current financial year, an amount of Rs.37.18 lacs have been earmarked for different works to be executed with the breakup of 26.31 lacs for Poonch town and Rs.10.87 lacs for Surankote town. The officers were instructed to take into confidence local representatives while executing works in their respective jurisdiction. Two drainage schemes viz Drainage scheme viz drainage scheme Mahanider and one at Surankote under execution at an estimated cost of Rs.94.00 lacs and Rs.180.00 lacs against which an amount of Rs.69.77 lacs and Rs.51.16 lacs stand utilized till 3/2013 respectively. Rs.8.00 lacs for each scheme has been earmarked for the current financial year It was further disclosed that under the flagship programme of JNNURM, six project have been sanctioned in Distt Poonch under UIDSSMT-Integrated Housing Slum Dev programme IHSDP (component of JNNURM) viz construction of housing units and execution of infrastructure works at an estimated cost of Rs.3619.67 lacs. Till ending August 2013 funds to the tune of Rs.3156.01 lacs have been utilized out of which Rs.2161.17 lacs stand utilized till ending August 2013. The officers were also instructed to explore possibility of extracting user charges where residents having paying capacity and those living below poverty line be exempted to provide better civic amenities.
Besides District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Director, Urban Local Bodies, EXEN ULB Jammu and other officers participated in review meeting conveyed by Mr. Jora at Surankote today.