With an aim to transform the developmental profile of the border district Samba and to ensure timely removal of bottlenecks in the development works alongside extension of benefits of welfare schemes to the people here, Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring, Sushma Chauhan who is also Mentor Secretary of the district today visited the district and chaired a day long meeting to assess the progress on developmental activities here.During the meeting, the Mentor Secretary held detailed interaction with officers of various departments like PWD, Jal Shakti, RDD, JPDCL and others to analyse their present achievements.The Mentor Secretary also enquired from the officers about issues being faced by them while implementing different schemes in the district. The officers of departments like PHE, PDD, RDD flagged the issue of non clearance of bills under languishing schemes as the main reason for delay in completion of projects. The Mentor Secretary assured them that the issue would be taken up at appropriate level.
While reviewing the BADP, she directed that more projects should be envisaged under the scheme like tele-medicine / consultants, libraries, community centres and playfields in every border village, so that maximum people are benefitted from this programme.Assessing the Under Area Development grants, the Mentor Secretary instructed the executing agencies to strive hard to complete maximum number of works during the current financial year, so that development on ground is visible and general public gets benefitted.Regarding Aspirational blocks, the Mentor Secretary stressed upon the officers that in Sumb and Rajpura which are Aspirations Block of the district, gap analysis should be undertaken in respect of priority sectors so that overall development of these blocks can be achieved.
During the meeting, the Mentor Secretary appreciated the efforts of District Administration in dealing with Covid pandemic as well as remarkable achievement in vaccination drive making Samba the first district to achieved 100% vaccination of above 18 years.The Mentor Secretary during the day long meeting held detailed deliberations with Chairman, District Development Council, Samba, Keshav Dutt Sharma and other DDC members on development aspirations and issues from grassroots level. The meeting also held discussion on CSSs like MGNREGS, Jal Jeevan Mission, PMAY, SBM, etc.DDC Chairman while expressing satisfaction over outreach of public functionaries among locals, raised issues of compensation of lands beyond fencing, recruitment of youth in BSF regiments on basis of border certificates and other local issues.Among those who were present in meeting included ADDC Samba, CPO Samba, DIO Samba and district officers of various line departments.