Minister for Forests & Social Welfare, Bali Bhagat, who is also the Chairman of District Development Board, Kishtwar, today chaired the Board review meeting of the district and called upon the district administration for accelerating the pace of developmental activities to achieve the targets in a time bound manner.Minister of State for PWD (R&B) and Revenue ,Sunil Kumar Sharma, Chairperson Social Welfare Advisory Board Mrs Nirmala Gupta, Legislators G.M Saroori, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo, Firdous Tak, Shyam Lal Bhagat, Naresh Gupta , Deputy commissioner Kishtwar, G.N Balwan, SSP Kishtwar, Snadeep Wazir, CPO Kishtwar, Yasir Balwan, other Divisional and District level officer attended the meeting.
While reviewing the physical and financial achievements of Roads and building sector ,Mr Bali expressed concern over the low progress on the roads of Chatroo division under NABARD besides he also expressed his displeasure over the slow progress on the work allotted to JKPCC in the district. Minister was informed that due to tough terrain, non- availability of Quarry and land compensation are the major obstacles in its execution. Mr Bali directed the DC Kishtwar to expedite the issue of disbursement of compensation cases and arrange additional funds, if required. He also instructed that work on the Shalimar- Trigam road should be executed on priority.On noticing that the work on major roads in the District has been held up due to pending forest clearances, he directed for conducting the joint survey by the revenue Department , executing agency and the forest department for clearing the bottlenecks expeditiously.
Mr Bali called upon the officers to adopt a coordinated approach to complete the on-gong road projects in a time bound manner. He directed the Deputy Commissioner to personally monitor the major projects and take all possible steps to address the hurdles coming in the way of completion of works. He directed the DC to focus on the important projects and monitor their progress periodically.He laid stress on the completion of TRC to Kuleed drain, strengthening of core network of roads in the rural areas of Kishtwar, blacktopping the road in and around the town, removal of encroachments on the govt land on the priority.Under Education Sector, Mr Bali directed the Officers to provide the list of toilets constructed under RMSA to the Local MLAs for proper monitoring so that the better infrastructure is developed in the school education department. Stressing upon the achieving 100% physical and financial achievement under every sector in the District , Minister warned that strict action will be taken against the officers who will show any slackness in implementing various projects and schemes of the Government in the District.
On the issue of the cost escalation of the school buildings under RMSA direction were issued to the executive agency to complete land leveling and other labour work in convergence with MGNREGA. The DC was impressed upon to restore and upgrade the govt. boys HSS Kishtwar which was damaged due to earthquakes . Underscoring the need of proper monitoring of developmental works, it was impressed upon all the officers to formulate the plan of all developmental works in consultation with local MLAs so that a proper track on the progress at all the stages could be maintained. For delay in the construction of KGBVs in the district, Chatroo College and SSA buildings, the Minister asked the DC to submit a status report in a time bond manner.The Chairman also directed the DC to constitute a committee of three technical officers who will conduct verification of the school buildings constructed under SSA in the district and to submit a report within one month.
To start work on some of the projects which is held up because of hurdles created by some notorious people in the society, DC and SSP Kishtwar were impressed upon to take strict action against such anti developmental people.To ensure time bound completion of ambitious Niagad Water Supply Scheme, Mr Bali issued instructions to the concerned to start work on the scheme immediately as the pipes for 7 km out of total 32 Km water supply scheme are dumped on the site and the rest will be made available soon.Under health sector, both the executing agencies and health department were asked to expedite the handing over and taking over process of the completed PHCs and other buildings which are completed till date.Mr. Sunil Sharma demanded a joint inspection for identification of land for PHC Marwah which is pending due to non- availability of land. It was also proposed that the land between Dharie and Nowgam be selected for the PHC which will benefit both the villages. Factual position of district hospital Kishtwar was also sought by the Chairman so that the steps for augmentation of staff strength will be taken. Assistant Director Fisheries Kishtwar was asked to submit a feasibility report after surveying the Galigd area where a fish pond could be proposed. He was also directed to identify the streams and nallahs where new fish varieties could be introduced.
Expressing concern over the damaged saffron ,Dy Director Agriculture Jammu was instructed to depute a team of scientists for accessing damages caused to the crop so that the compensation cases could be prepared for the saffron growers.Overloading of passenger busses plying on the route from Kishtwar to Jammu, strengthening the J&K SRTC Bus services to the Kishtwar were the issues which came before the board and DC was directed to identify the 5 kanals of lands where workshop for SRTC could be established. The issues pertaining to the beautification of Chowgan ground and improvement of dilapidated road conditions and strengthening the public utilities facilities in the Kishtwar town were highlighted before the board for which Chairman issued appropriate instructions to the Deputy Commissioner.
Sunil Sharma demanded resumption of Chopper services for the snow bound areas of the district viz Padder, Dachan, Warwan and Marwah, which remain cut off for most part of the year. He also demanded that advanced ration should be given to these cutoff areas. He also stressed upon the widening of kuleed Chowk to bus stand road, argumentation and Malipeth and Mandal receiving sations of Power Development Department to address the problem of unscheduled power cuts and demanded the maintenance of buffer staff of transformers for replacement during winter.Earlier DC Kishtwar apprised the house that the approved outlay for the current financial year is Rs. 115.34 crores out of which Rs. 52.64 crores were released upto ending October, 2015 against the released amount an expenditure of Rs. 31.05 crores incurred up to October 2015 which works out to 59.01% of the released amount.