Governor, N.N. Vohra, held a meeting with all the Administrative Secretaries in the State Government at the Civil Secretariat here today. Before commencing discussions, a two minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to the late Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. This was the Governor’s first visit to the Civil Secretariat after the imposition of Governor’s Rule in the State. He spent about three and a half hours in the Secretariat. During discussions with the senior officers, the Governor directed that all functionaries must attend office punctually and work devotedly throughout the day. The Chief Secretary was asked to ensure that Biometric Attendance Marking Systems are installed in all offices in the State within a month to effectively regulate attendance and punctuality. He observed that such systems were been installed with great advantage, several years ago, in the Jammu and Srinagar Raj Bhavans.
The Governor also directed the Secretaries to personally review and ensure prompt and efficient delivery of various public services to the people of the State. He also asked them to earmark at least one hour in the latter part of the day to meet and hear complaints and grievances from the public and ensure that these were given prompt attention. He cautioned that complaints regarding delays, irregularities and corruption must be dealt with most sternly and those responsible should be proceeded against without any fear or favour.
The Governor asked the Chief Secretary to urgently have prepared department wise lists of all pending cases and personally monitor to ensure that every important matter was timely disposed of and all cases which required higher level approvals should be sent to the Governor.The Governor expressed concern about the timely utilisation of all available resources, particularly the funds available under the State Plan and the various Centrally Sponsored Schemes. He particularly referred to the need of ensuring that funds available under NABARD, MGNREGA, SSA and other important schemes are fully utilised before the end of the financial year. He also directed the Finance Department to ensure that the balance funds under the State Plan and the State Share of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes were released without any delay whatsoever so that there was no reason left for the non implementation of all development programmes and projects in the State. He also directed the Finance Department to ensure that Utilisation Certificates under various schemes were furnished to the concerned Government of India authorities without any delay whatsoever.
The Governor asked the Chief Secretary to regularly review at his own level and ensure that the Food Security Act was implemented within the time frame decided by the former Government. He also asked the Chief Secretary to take early meetings to review the implementation of the Action Plan for Road Safety and also particularly monitor the implementation of the various schemes relating to the handicapped and other disadvantaged segments of the society and reports on all such reviews should be sent to him. As regards the commencement of the Budget Session, earlier scheduled for 18thJanuary 2016, the Governor observed that this matter shall be reviewed by the incoming political government. He also directed that proposals for transfers should be sent up to him only in those cases where these were functionally inescapable or in cases where officers who were continuing to await appointments were to be adjusted.Earlier, on arrival at the Civil Secretariat, the Governor was received by Shri B.R. Sharma, Chief Secretary, Shri K. Rajendra Kumar, DGP and Shri R.K. Goyal, Principal Secretary, Home. The Governor was accompanied by Shri Pradip K. Tripathi, his Principal Secretary.