*Not even single penny released to tackle water logging
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 20: The slackness of those at the helm of affairs in four key departments of the State has acted as stumbling block in translating into reality several decisions of immense public importance taken by District Development Boards of Samba and Jammu districts last year. Despite lapse of 10 months, even the field level officers of these departments don’t know when these decisions would actually be implemented on ground.
These departments are Health, Irrigation and Flood Control, Housing and Urban Development and Power Development Department and all are directly connected with the common masses one way or the other.
As far as Samba district is concerned, the District Development Board, which met under the chairmanship of the then Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on July 3, 2015, had decided that AMT School would be shortly established in the district as land for the same had already been identified.
However, when the follow-up exercise was about to be initiated the identified land was found inappropriate because of being low-lying area. Accordingly, the district administration was asked to identify new and most suitable land. “Though the district administration has completed its task by identifying the land, further action which was required to be initiated by the Health Department, is still awaited as a result of which the DDB decision remained only on papers till date”, sources told EXCELSIOR.
Similarly, it was decided that Blood Bank at District Hospital Samba would be shortly established so that patients particularly the road accident victims don’t lose lives for want of timely transfusion of blood. This decision was important keeping in view the fact that almost every day tragic road accidents take place on the National Highway falling in the Samba district.
“The only exercise carried out in this regard during the past 10 months is identification of suitable space in the District Hospital premises and no step has been initiated on ground to establish the much needed Blood Bank”, sources informed while disclosing that Health Department has not shown any seriousness till date in honoring the decision of the District Development Board.
The third major decision of the Samba DDB was with regard to carrying out of flood protection works on priority basis. The necessity of such works was felt keeping in view the damages caused by flash floods during past some years.
“Though some minor works have been carried out, the major flood protection works are yet to be started mainly for want of funds”, sources said, adding “the proposal for all the big works has been submitted to the Central Water Commission but there is no proper follow up of the proposal despite the fact that all the queries of the CWC have been responded from time to time”.
Keeping in view the prevailing situation, no major flood protection work is likely to be started well before the Monsoon season of this year, sources said, adding “in the absence of flood protection works how much damages the rainfall and subsequent floods would cause to the Government and private infrastructure in vulnerable areas of Samba district is beyond imagination of anybody”.
As far as Jammu district is concerned, the DDB had decided that transformer workshop would be established either in R S Pura or Akhnoor for speedy repair of the transformers damaged due to overloading and other reasons.
This decision was imperative as presently there is only one central workshop for repair of the transformers in Jammu due to which damaged transformers have to wait for long time for repair causing inconvenience to the people.
Though an amount of Rs 50 lakh was kept available for the purpose, the work could not be started as during a detailed exercise the cost of the project was estimated at Rs 2.5 crore. “Despite being aware of the fact that transformer workshop is imperative for providing relief to the people, the Power Development Department has not released the required funds till date”, sources regretted.
Another important decision was with regard to establishment of waste management plant in Jammu and 7 small waste management plants in the Muffasils for which 25 kanals land at each place was to be identified.
“As far as waste management plant at Bhalwal is concerned, the project has yet not come out of the paperwork till date”, sources said, adding “similarly, there is no major development with regard to seven small waste management plants due to soft-paddling on the part of Housing and Urban Development Department”. Due to this, disposal of solid waste in scientific manner has remained a dream.
It was also decided by the District Development Board that an amount of Rs 5 crore would be released for tackling water logging problem in the winter capital city. However, not even a single penny has been released till date for the purpose and people would have to face this problem even during the Monsoon season this year.
Similarly, there is no follow-up on the decisions with regard to upgradation and augmentation of Ranjan lift irrigation scheme, establishment of Municipal Committee at Miran Sahib and development of one village in Akhnoor constituency as Mango Village.
“The hanging fate of vital decisions clearly indicates that some stringent measures are required to be taken to make the officers and officials of the concerned departments accountable for timely implementation of the decisions otherwise convening meetings of DDBs would be just an exercise in futility”, sources stressed.
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