Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Nov 6: Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today convened a meeting of concerned officers to review the achievements, expenditure and shortfalls under Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Plan (SCA to TSP) and Article 275 (1) for the last three years.
Giving details, DDC Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed that the district received Rs 239.49 lakh in FY 2015-16 under SCA to TSP whereas Rs 272 lakh, Rs 100 lakh and Rs 100 lakh were provided in FYs 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively. However no funds were allotted to the district in 2016-17 under SCA to TSP.
He further informed that for establishment of cluster model villages at Lah and Dhoke, milk village at Argi and Cluster Model Village at Khandarian, funds to the tune of Rs 339 lakh are provided to the district, out of which Rs 80 lakh could be expended till date.
The Minister while expressing concern over the low expenditure under TSP said that a number of tribal hamlets are lacking in basic amenities like electricity, road connectivity and clean drinking water in spite of sufficient funds available in the district, only because of the lackadaisical approach of the executing agencies.
He directed the Chief Planning Officer to resubmit the detailed plan for 2016-17 so that the funds could be revalidated.
To ensure the electricity supply to remotely located tribal hamlets he directed the XEn. to work out the number of such un-electrified tribal hamlets/ villages and submit a detailed plan so that the earliest action in this regard can be taken .
Taking a serious view of tardy works on construction of additional block of Gujjar Bakerwal Hostel at Rajouri, hostel block of Gujjar Bakerwal residential school, at Nagrota and residential schools at Mera Rajouri, the Minister directed the concerned to gear up their men and machinery so that infrastructural gap for providing better facilities for students from these marginalized communities can be filled.
Other important works that came up for discussion in the meeting included remodeling of conference block of Gujjar Bakerwal hostel, completion of GB hostel at Kalakote, Eklavya Model residential school, Smart Tribal Village, Health Sub-Center at Hubbi Kallar and Tribal Heritage Museum at Nagrota. The Minister gave necessary directions for timely completion of these crucial projects for the welfare of tribal population.
The meeting was attended by secretary Tribal Affairs Mukhtar Ahmad Choudhary, Director FCS & CAs R. A. Inqalabi, SSP Yougal Manhas, Deputy Director Summan Bhalla, Joint Director Legal Metrology, ACD Noor Aalam, CPO Abdul Hamid, DSWO Dr. Abdul Khabir, CEO Lal Hussain, district officers and executive engineers of various engineering departments.
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