Minister for Public Works, Naeem Akhtar, on Saturday stressed on the engineers that quality and timeliness have to be strictly adhered to in the development works.“Timelines have to be followed. I will judge all of you by quality of work and speed. I will not entertain any cost overrun of the projects,” Akhtar said while addressing a high-level review meeting of PMGSY Jammu division here.The Minister of state for Transport, Public Works (R&B), Sunil Sharma, Commissioner-Secretary (PWD) Rohit Kansal, Development Commissioner Works, Bimal Tikkoo, Chief Engineer PMGSY Jammu P L Bushan, Chief Engineer R&B Jammu Alok Mengi, Chief Conservator Forests (CCF) Abdul Gani Hajam, Deputy Secretary Revenue, Ghulam Rasool, Superintending Engineers (SEs) and Executive Engineers (Xens) of PMGSY Jammu division were present at the meeting.Naeem sought details of progress of PMGSY schemes from SEs and Xens in their respective areas of jurisdiction. He sought details about the missing of targets and cost overrun of the schemes from concerned engineers and passed strict directions against the cost overrun of the projects. He also asked the officers to make the field visits a routine feature of administration.
He also asked the officers to come up with a user friendly interactive web portal in which information about the development works will be uploaded and at the same time citizen feedback about their progress will be received.Taking a strong note of the projects languishing because of delay in forest clearance, the Minister stressed on better coordination between Revenue, Forest and Works Department. He directed the engineers to nominate a nodal officer for getting the forest clearance approval speedily with already set time frame. The Minister also sought suggestions from the engineers for improving working of the organization and assured them all the genuine demands would be met. He however set a rider of completion of projects within stipulated time and maintaining quality standards. The Minister impressed upon the engineers that State has received Rs 2800 crore of funds under PMGSY from the center and it has thrown a challenge and opportunity as well for them to utilize the funds in the best interest of the state. He also warmed the contractors of blacklisting who leave the projects mid-way and leave the projects of public importance in limbo. Chief Engineer PMGSY gave a detailed presentation of implementation of scheme in various areas and habitations in Jammu division. The CE informed the meeting that 71 schemes were completed by the end of January this year under Phase-10.