Governor Shri N.N. Vohra ordered the release of an additional Rs. 6.5 crores for acceleration of ongoing development works in Poonch district. He ordered: (i) the Deputy Commissioner to conduct a Safety Audit of all bunds and protection works; (ii) Chief Engineer, PHE, to get a Performance Audit done of all Filtration Plants in the district and to get the quality of water being supplied through PHE schemes checked on weekly basis; (iii) the release of Rs. 1.37 crores for completion of Phase-I of the Satellite Campus of Jammu University and for making this campus functional at the earliest. Governor Vohra gave these directions during his day long visit to Poonch district. Since the commencement of Governor’s Rule, this was his third visit to the field to first hand access the pace of developmental works, review the progress achieved and to ascertain for himself the bottlenecks which are impeding the completion of works in the field. Governor had earlier visited Budgam and Anantnag districts where he had ordered the release of an additional amount of Rs. 5.00 crores each in favour of various executing agencies to speed up the pace of works.Earlier, the Governor chaired a meeting with all the Legislators of district Poonch, including Choudhary Akram, Sh. Shah Mohd. Tantray, Shri Javed Rana (all MLAs); and Ms. Shehnaz Ganai, Sh. Yash Paul and Sh. Pradeep Sharma (all MLCs).
The Legislators raised various developmental issues pertaining to district Poonch as well as to their respective constituencies. They drew the Governor’s attention to the slow pace of developmental works; shortage of staff in schools and hospitals; shortage of drinking water in the district; traffic congestion; and the need of taking up and expeditiously completing various works pertaining to the power sector. Governor gave a patient hearing to the Legislators and assured them of an early resolution of the issues raised by them. Later, while chairing a meeting of State Divisional and District level officers, Governor sought the comments of the officers concerned on the issues which had been raised by the Legislators in the preceding meeting and also review the performance of various sectors. He expressed concern that a number of development works continued to remain incomplete despite the fact that full funding had been assured to them under various State and Central schemes. He directed Chief Engineer, R&B, to complete the Mannkote Bridge by 30th November and the Mandi bridge by 31st December, 2018. He also directed that the work on Bufflaiz Road be expedited and directed the Planning Department to release Rs. 2.00 crore towards the cost of land acquisition. He took serious note of the fact that Adai Road had not yet been repaired despite suffering extensive damages in the 2014 floods and directed Chief Engineer PMGSY to ensure immediate repairs of the road for which the Planning Department was directed to release funds.
Reacting to the demands raised by the PHE Department, he directed the immediate release of Rs. 60.00 lakhs for operation of PHE feeders so that water pumping should not be impacted by any power outages. He also sanctioned 100 hand pumps to be dug and commissioned within three months to meet the shortage of water in the district. He laid special emphasis on the conservation of water and directed the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that the issue of water conservation be given due importance and ordered conservation works to be carried out under MNREGA programme in convergence mode.Governor directed the Education Department to take up the work of all incomplete schools on priority besides asking the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, to review the cases of all schools which had either been abandoned or which were suffering from any shortfall in infrastructure including shortage of boundary walls, water facilities or toilet facilities. He also directed that all schools be immediately provided with toilets under the Public Toilet Programme of the Swachch Bharat Mission. Reacting to the demand for incentivising horticulture production in the district, he issued orders for establishment of a Rajmash village and a Garlic village in the district.Governor was accompanied by Shri B.B. Vyas, Advisor to Governor, and Shri Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department.