The Minister for Rural Development & Panchayati Raj and Law & Justice Abdul Haq Khan today convened a meeting to review the functioning of Rural Development department in Jammu Division.The Minister held comprehensive review with ACDs, Executive Engineers, DPOs, BDOs of all districts of Jammu Division and enquired in detail about their physical and financial achievements and number of works taken in convergence with other departments.The Minister directed the concerned officers to complete the construction work of all the Panchyat Ghars, CFCs and other ongoing works within the stipulated time so that these buildings are operationalized and serve the envisaged purpose.Reviewing the physical and financial achievements registered in Jammu region and the implementation of MGNERGA up to March 2016 , the minister was informed that an amount of Rs. 6531.30 lakh has been expended in Doda district, 6741.83 lakh in Jammu ,2439.77 lakh in Kathua, 7619.49 lakh in Kishtwar, 3680.55 lakh in Poonch ,5220.59 lakh in Rajouri, 1963.80 lakh in Ramban, 3900.86 lakh in Reasi, 1377.96 lakh in Samba and 2921.27 lakh in Udhampur. It was further given out that a total 177.63 lakh man days have been generated against set target of 186.4 for Jammu division.
The Minister also reviewed the performance under IAY and asked the officers to work with more zeal and dedication. He said that the common people especially the poor people have great expectations from the scheme and stressed on timely redressal of public grievances.The minister said that quality of life of rural population should be improved by providing better amenities and improving sanitation .He directed for deputing a team of officers to visit the states where Solid Liquid Management scheme has been successfully implemented. SLWM is one of the key components of any sanitation initiatives which is rightly emphasized and focused in the Government of India’s flagship programme of Total Sanitation, the minister further added.Open defecation is a source of nearly 90 per cent of ailments and all efforts should be made to stop this practice and generating mass awareness about this issue said the RDD minister adding that the government has given priority to constructing toilets in every house across the state and concerted efforts are on achieve the set target.The minister asked the officers to ensure that the work on all schemes of Rural Development Department is completed within stipulated time to provide requisite infrastructural support.The minister further directed the concerned officers to ensure each Panchayat Ghar has display boards having list of officers with designation and phone numbers including essential services departments for the information of general public.Commissioner-Secretary, Rural Development Department, Director Rural Development Jammu, Director Rural Sanitation, Executive Engineers RDD, ACDs, DPOs, BDOs of Jammu Division and other senior officers of the concerned departments were present in the meeting.