Lt. Governor Girish Chandra Murmu reviewed the progress of languishing projects being funded by the Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation Ltd. He also reviewed the status of Prisons department and School Education sector in separate meetings held at the Civil Secretariat, here today.Sh. BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commissioner, Finance; Sh. Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to Lt. Governor were among the officers present on the occasion.Sh. Mehta informed Lt. Governor that JKIDFC has taken up 2,274 languishing projects with an investment of Rs. 9111.25 crore.Lt. Governor directed Sh. Mehta to give preference to local labour and oversee that the labour laws are being adhered to by the agencies responsible for engaging workforce and check whether insurance cover is available to all of them. He stressed keeping provision for maintenance of all the assets and creation of amenities like overhead water tanks, library, common field in all the residential projects. He emphasised strict quality control, use of anti corrosion building material, compressive strength test for roads and suggested avoiding cost and time overruns in infrastructure projects.Lt. Governor advised wide publicity of the completed projects with dissemination of information regarding date of sanctioning and completion of the project so that people become aware of the facilities created for their convenience.In another meeting of the Department of Home attended by Sh. Shaleen Kabra, Principal Secretary Home and Sh. V.K. Singh, DGP Prisons, a detailed presentation was given by Sh. Kabra on the status of available infrastructure, occupancy of jails and present capacity. He informed about the initiatives of the Department of Prisons for welfare of prisoners.
Lt. Governor discussed in detail the status of under trials, convicts, condemned and detenues under the common law and militancy related laws. He directed fast track recruitment of staff on vacant positions and completion of all the under construction infrastructure projects of the Department at the earliest.During the review of School Education department which was attended by Ms. Sarita Chouhan, Commissioner Secretary School Education and Directors of Education, Lt. Governor advised regular health check-ups of students at least twice a year and generation of their health cards. Lt. Governor suggested check-ups in presence of parents so that they could be made aware of their children’s health issues. He directed for creating health check up calendars in consultation with Health Department.Lt. Governor suggested regular training for improving quality of teaching, survey of facilities available in science and computer laboratories, check availability of drinking water and toilet facilities in schools, identify vacancies of lecturers and teachers for the next 5 years.The Secretary School Education was directed to organise first health check up in the month of December in summer zone and in the month of March in schools falling under winter zone. She was asked to ensure 100 % availability of drinking water supply in all the schools by 31st December 2019 and complete survey of science and computer laboratories with in the next 15 days.Lt. Governor directed for filling up vacant positions in the department at the earliest and stressed enhanced focus on schools having Gross Enrolment Ratio of less than 25 %.