Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 24: Minister for Public Works and Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri today chaired a high level meeting of officers to expedite the process of land acquisition and forest clearance for the road connectivity projects.
The meeting was attended by the Commissioner Secretary Public Works (R&B), Rohit Kansal, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmed Khan, Development Commissioner Works, Bimal Tikoo, Chief Engineer PMGSY Kashmir, Basharat Ahmed, Chief Engineer R&B Kashmir, Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Chief Conservator of forests (FCA), Abdul Gani, Deputy Commissioners and Superintending Engineers of Kashmir division.
Veeri directed the officers to expedite the process of forest clearance required for the construction of various projects across Kashmir.
The Minister took a serious note of leaving the vital road constructions mid way over the years due to bottlenecks in land acquisition and forest clearance.
Many road projects which were in limbo due to land acquisition issues were discussed in the meeting through video conferencing with Deputy Commissioners wherein separate deadlines were setup for each project.
The Minister asked the officers to form a committee of Deputy Commissioners, Superintending Engineers and Divisional Forest Officers to fix the modalities for speeding up the process of forest clearance.
He said that joint verification by the all the three concerned agencies will speed up the process of sending the project reports to Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) for final approval.
Veeri said that roads which are meant for new connectivity should be prioritized in PMGSY rather than in NABARD and CRF programme.
The Minister assured the officers that compensation is not an issue under PMGSY for projects which would help in fostering the connectivity of habitations.
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