Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmed Khan, today inspected various ongoing works undertaken by Rural Development Department. He also took detailed review of the functioning of RDD, PDD and Tourism sectors in the district.Advisor was accompanied by District Development Commissioner Kathua O.P Bhagat, SSP Kathua Shailender Mishra, Director RDD Sudershan Kumar, Chief Engineer, JPDCL Gurmeet Singh, Joint Director Tourism Neelam Khajuria, ACD Kathua Narayan Dutt among others. Advisor inaugurated the passenger shed at Seswan Morh of block Marheen, coming up with an estimated cost of Rs 1.30 lakh under 14th FC. He also inspected under construction Tractor roads at village Tanda coming up at a cost of Rs.2.96 lakh under MGNREGA.Meanwhile, Advisor Baseer Khan visited various panchayats of block Barnoti and inspected ongoing works viz tractor roads at Rajbagh and Bhallu, restoration and renovation of ponds at Mearth and Nanan. He passed directions to the BDO to complete the works in line with quality standards within stipulated time.Besides, the Advisor dedicated bathing Ghat at Nanan constructed with Rs. 2 lakh and newly renovated building of CFC at Mearth completed with a cost of Rs. 3 lakh undertaken by Rural Development Department.Later, the Advisor chaired a meeting of officers in the DC office and took detailed review of the RDD, PDD and Tourism sectors.While reviewing the Power scenario in the district, the Advisor directed the PDD engineers to ensure proper maintenance of health records of assets such as transformers to fix liability for their upkeep. He also called for having buffer stock of transformers to meet up any contingency. He laid thrust on removing illegal connections and directed concerned to take action against defaulters indulging in power theft.
The Advisor directed engineers of PDD to expedite the works under Languishing projects stalled due to lockdown by strengthening the labour force without delay. He also called for observing all protocols such as hand washing and social distancing at work sites.Advisor, while reviewing Tourism sector, directed authorities to make a salient feature report within week’s time on tourism potential of hilly area Dhaggar and area around Atal Setu identified by the District Administration to tap the tourism potential of the area. He also called for identifying sites for developing Heritage, Craft, pilgrimage, adventure and village tourism to give fillip to the tourism activities in the district.He also directed Tourism authorities to take legal action with the help of the Revenue department against any encroachment on the assets of the tourism department.During the meeting, the Advisor also reviewed the physical achievement and financial performance of the Rural Development Department in the district.The Advisor emphasized upon the need to take demand driven projects under the Rural Development Department involving PRI's representative to make them key stakeholder in participatory development. He said the endeavour must be to expedite Rural Development activities marred by lockdown due to Covid-19 outbreak.He also called upon the elected representatives of PRI's to help administration in generating awareness on Covid-19 precautions such as social distancing and frequent hand washing in their respective areas.The Advisor informed that process of recruiting Account Assistant for Panchayats has been initiated.Earlier, DDC Kathua gave a detailed account of the works undertaken by the department of Rural Development, PDD and Tourism Sectors through power point presentation.The DDC informed that Kathua district has a huge potential of becoming a tourist hub as the district has unique qualification in craft, rich in landscape and scenic viewpoints to attract tourists especially to Billawar, Basohli and hilly areas of Bani.