Ab. Rahim Rather reviews winter stocking in Ladakh;

Asks concerned departments to complete stock dumping within next three months

5 Dariya News (Muzaffar Bhat, Rouf Pampori)

Srinagar 29-May-2014

The Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs, Ab. Rahim Rather today urged for coordinated efforts between the concerned departments and Border Roads Organization to build up stocks of essential commodities, food grains, petroleum products and key building materials in Ladakh region as per the realistic requirements projected by the concerned District Development Commissioners of the twin snow bound districts of Leh and Kargil. “In view of the prevailing weather forecast surprises and forthcoming Assembly Elections, should complete dumping of stocks essentially during the three months of June, July and August this year,” Rather asserted.Speaking at a high level meeting convened here on Wednesday, Rather asked the Deputy Commissioners of Leh and Kargil Districts to contact Administrative Secretaries directly in case of any bottlenecks in smooth winter-stocking, adding that the concerned heads of the department should also approach pisional Commissioner, Kashmir to remove any difficulty coming in the way of implementing winter-stocking plan on the ground. He directed to speed up dispatch of consignments to the region from next month.

The Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies, Nawang Rigzin Jora, Member Parliament, Leh – Kargil Constituency, Thupstan Chwang, Minister of State for Science & Technology, Feroz Ahmad Khan and Chairman, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Rigzin Sapalbar were also present in the meeting.Among others Administrative Secretaries of Forest, CA&PD, Transport and Ladakh Affairs, I.G.P. Traffic Kashmir, Transport Commissioner, District Development Commissioner Leh, heads of various departments and Public Sector Undertakings and representatives of Army and various oil companies also attended the meeting.Rather asked the concerned departments to put in place adequate number of Weight Bridges at Sonamarg to evade avoidable traffic jams adding that management of Weight Bridges should be the sole responsibility of Motor Vehicles department. He asked the transport department to keep adequate number of trucks available at ferry targeted quota of food grains, petroleum products and key construction materials up to Leh and Kargil districts without any difficulty and delay.

The Secretary Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA PD) department said that SRTC has set aside required number of trucks at the disposal of CA & PD to ferry 34,000 truckloads of food grains. Of this, 92 truck loads have already been dispatched yesterday. He said the Government of India has approved additional quota of food grains as demanded by the State Government, so there would be no crisis, on account of ration etc.The Finance Minister also asked the Deputy Commissioners of Leh and Kargil to clear outstanding liabilities of the J&K SRTC on account of hiring of trucks from it. Rather said that the Ladakh region remains land locked for about 6 months and the inhabitants of this region deserve special attention of the government to redress their grievances on priority. He asked the officers of the administration to fulfill their legitimate duties in this regard.The meeting was informed that CA & PD department has fixed a target to stock 86,200 Qtls. of Atta and 12,060 Qtls of Sugar, whereas FCI will stock 1,00,000 Qtls of Rice in Kargil District during 2014-15. The FCI will dump 1, 30,000 Qtls. of Rice and 1, 10,000 Qtls of Wheat in Leh, whereas, CA & PD has a target to stock 95,000 Qtls in the Leh District.