Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, June 19: The District Development Board (DDB) Udhampur that met here today under the chairmanship of Minister for Housing, Horticulture and Culture Raman Bhalla, approved an outlay of Rs.99.03 crore for the district under Current year annual plan.
Member Parliament, Lal Singh, Vice Chairman J&K Advisory Board for the Development of Gujjar & Bakerwal, Bashir Ahmed Naaz, MLAs Harshdev Singh, Balwant Singh Mankotia, Krishan Chander Bhagat, Baldev Raj Sharma, District Development Commissioner, Yasha Mudgal, besides district heads of line departments officers of police and army attended the meeting.
The plan includes capital component of Rs. 62.29 crore and revenue component of Rs. 33.39 crore against last year’s annual plan of Rs. 95.69 crore.
Addressing the meeting, Mr. Bhalla, who is chairman of DDB Udhampur, stressed upon the concerned officers to focus on the core sectors including road connectivity, supply of safe drinking water, power supply, education and healthcare. He also stressed on time bound development of far-flung areas.
Calling for concerted efforts for making J&K a prosperous State, Mr. Bhalla asked the concerned functionaries to ensure optimum utilization of funds under the Government of India schemes like PMGSY, NRHM, SGSY, DRDA, MGNREGA, RKVY, IAY, RAMSA, SSA and BSUP. He also asked them to use local resources for the welfare of the people of the State.
“Common man has high expectations from the Government and it is not possible to fulfill all expectations but whatever is done should be visible on the ground”, Mr. Bhalla asserted. He said that during last four years, the Government did a lot on developmental and welfare fronts by launching numerous ambitious and people friendly programmes but there is always room for improvement and much more efforts need to be put in future.
The Minister said that Government has initiated several programmes and Schemes for the all-round development of the district particularly far-flung areas. He stressed upon the officers to work with sincerity and dedication and ensure time bound completion of developmental projects.
Earlier, in a power point presentation by the DDC, it was informed that during the last fiscal an expenditure of Rs. 71.84 crore was incurred on developmental activities under various sectors thereby registering 99.41 percent utilization of capital component.
It was informed that Rs. 1.63 crore were spent for providing safe drinking water to uncovered and newly developed localities in the district, while Rs 34.50 lakh were spent on the improvement of the power infrastructure, including installation of 229 transformers of different capacities.
About the current year plan proposals for various sectors, the meeting was informed that a plan of Rs. 16.12 crore has been proposed for PWD, while Rs 48.58 lakh for boosting agriculture production in the district.
It was further told that Rs. 3.28 crore have been earmarked for development of cold storage at Champari, adding that the project would greatly help to the people dealing in production and marketing of fruits and vegetables.
Member Parliament, MLA Ramnanagar, Reasi, Udhampur and Gordi-Chenani projected problems and demands of their respective areas which among other things included parking slot at Udhampur, forest land compensation on account of forest clearance, development of Devika by setting up sewerage treatment plant and solid waste management plant to make Holy river pollution free, construction of community hall at Lander, construction of culverts over nallah Gouran in Gordi, bridges over Satyan and Gambhir nallahs.
The Chairman gave a patient hearing to the demands and assured these would be redressed at the earliest.
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