Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Sham Lal Chaudhary late Monday evening convened a meeting to review the implementation of Chief Minister’s commitments during her public outreach programme across all districts of the valley. Chief Minister’s directions during her public outreach programme were discussed in threadbare which include beautification of river Jhelum near Baramulla & Bijbehara town, City Forest project in Baramulla town, dredging of nallahSukhnag, providing of lift Irrigation facilities to Karewa Chandgam, treatment of Veshownallah, beautification of ZiyaratSharief Sheikh Noor ud-Din Noorani and cleaning of spring at Kulgam, Water Supply Scheme Sukhnag etc. The Minister was informed that 23 directions made by the CM in her public outreach programme were fulfilled out of 132 in Irrigation and Flood Control Department, while the rest are under implementation. Similarly, 26 decisions were implemented out of 56 in Public Health Engineering (PHE) decisions and the rest are under implementation.
On the occasion, Minister said that the valley needs focused attention vis-à-vis proper uninterrupted water supply during winter, restoration of defunct water supply schemes, restoration river embankments, dredging, flood control works and other under construction projects so that people do not face any kind of problem during chilly months.Calling for complete synergy between various Departments involved in infrastructure building and implementation of various water supply schemes and Irrigation and Flood Control works in the Kashmir division, Sham ordered strict adherence to timelines and first priority for completion of all ongoing projects of CM’s directions so that the people at large can benefit. The Minister observed that in view of the limited working season in Kashmir valley, work in double shifts on ongoing projects where adequate funding is available should be explored by the concerned executing agencies.Asking I&FC Department to expedite dredging and de-silting of river Jhelum and flood spill channel on war footing basis, Minister said he will personally monitor the pace of work. On the issue of effective implementation of construction works of various projects, he directed the engineers to immediately remove bottlenecks so that available resources under the Centrally-sponsored schemes are utilized without any further delay.Sham directed the officers to submit the present status of all projects under CM’s directions within fifteen days so that the work on these projects can be monitored and completed within stipulated timeframe.Chief Engineer PHE, I&FC Abdul Wahid, all Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers of PHE, I&FC and other concerned officers were present in this review meeting.