The 3-day historic Sankri Devta mela got underway in village Meer of block Pancheri in district Udhampur, today where thousands of people attired in traditional and colourful dresses thronged the mela to offer prayers and seek blessings of their revered deity for overall peace and prosperity.Minister of State for Finance & IT, Mr Pawan Kumar Gupta who was Chief Guest on the occasion inaugurated the historic mela in the Shankri Devta temple amidst full festivity in presence of MLA Chenani Mr Dina Nath Bhagat. The mela is being organized under the overall supervision of District Development Commissioner, Udhampur, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary. While speaking on the occasion, Mr. Gupta appealed to the participating devotees to take part in the mela that is plays an important role in promotion of local culture, brotherhood and communal harmony.
Mr Gupta constituted a Joint committee with MLA Chenani as Chairman , AEE PWD as Coordinator, BDO and Tehsildar as members, to conduct a survey and make a Master Plan for the integrated development of the Panchari area. He directed Engineers of PMGSY to do black topping of Meer to Sankri devta temple link road within the shortest possible time. He also directed Horticulture department to provide more fruit bearing trees to the people of the area that shall also help raise their economic standards. He directed PWD Udhampur to conduct a survey for land scaping and to identify tourist spots at Panchari. He instructed PHE department to identify more natural water sources for enhancing regular drinking water supply in the area.He also stressed upon the people to open more bank accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna and avail maximum benefits by joining various social security schemes such as APY, PMJJBY and PMSBY.
Earlier, MLA Chenani also spoke on the importance of Sankri devta temple and rich culture traditions of the people in the area.Adequate arrangements were made for drinking water facility, medicare, electricity, sanitation, transport etc. by the District Administration Udhampur on the occasion. To educate the people about various state and centrally sponsored government schemes, different departments had also put up their stalls at the site of mela.Various banks had also installed their stalls for providing awareness among the people about various social security schemes. Students of the area also presented local sports and cultural programme.Among others, AEE PWD Mr Puri, Engineers of PHE , PMGSY, Mela officer (Tehsildar Panchari) Mr Narinder Kumar, District Medical Officer, Dr. Som Singh,BDO Pancahari Mr Nitin, Naib Tehsildar, Mohd. Arif Tak, Tehsil Heads of various departments were present on the occasion.