Work on Tral Mini-Sectt halted due to lack of funds

Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, July 18: Work on Mini-Secretariat in Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, approved a year ago, has been stalled owing to delay in release of funds by the Government.
After taking over seven months in deciding the location of the building the construction work started in May this year. “It took authorities over seven months to decide the location and that eventually delayed the construction work”, Abdul Satttar, a local resident said.
An official at the local administration said the project aimed to cut down the time consumption in inter-departmental dealings by bringing departments in proximity to each other was approved in July 2017 with an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore and the project was scheduled to be completed in a year. However, he said the work was stopped a month after the constructed work commenced.
When contacted, General Manager, Jammu and Kashmir Projects Corporation Company, Maqsood Ahmad Gangoo, admitted that the work is going on at snail’s pace. “Slow pace of work is because scarcity of funds,” he said.
The GM said that the construction work was started after Government assured release of funds. However, he said they continued the foundation work for one month and reduced the pace of work after funds were not received against the work done. “We were promised  Rs 1 crore in the first week of June but nothing has been released so far,” he said.
Meanwhile, the local residents showed dismay over stalling the construction work. They said that people were expecting speedy redressal of their grievance with the construction of the Mini Secretariat in their area but an alleged abysmal Government has let them down.
“We were expecting that all our matters will be settled under one roof but the callous approach form the authorities have wasted the initiative,” Riyaz Ahmad, a resident said, adding, they were facing numerous hardships as they have to visit Government departments located in different areas.
Locals said if the construction work continued at same pace, it might not be completed in the next few decades and it will add to the misery of the local residents.

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