Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 18: Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma today said that Government will strengthen the mechanism of social auditing to ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control Departments.
Reviewing the functioning of the department, the Minister said that the department has a mandate to provide basic amenity to people and every possible effort would be made to make available safe drinking water to all uncovered habitations in the State.
Minister of State for PHE, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi was also present in the meeting.
Lauding the efforts of the department for substantial improvement in the overall functioning, the Minister said that people expect better services from the department and they must come up to their expectations. He directed the senior officers to strengthen the monitoring mechanism, enhance field visits for achieving the better results. He also stressed the need for expeditious completion of all on going schemes with judicious use of funds on each project.
To make judicious use of water, the Minister issued instructions to the concerned engineers for installation of water meters in all the commercial establishments within a period of two months. Failing which, stern action will be taken against the concerned officers. In order to check inflation of power supply bills, he directed for installation of electric meters on all water stations at the earliest.
Taking serious note of heavy liability on tanker service every year, the Minister said that a well-thought out strategy will be devised to check misuse of this service. He said tanker service should only be pressed at the vulnerable areas and not in routine matters. To maintain the efficacy of machinery, the Government will earmark sufficient funds for repair and maintenance.
The Minister directed the officers to strictly follow the advisory issued by the administrative department to ensure transparency in the functioning of Department at the grass root level. He renewed the instructions and directed for clearing all the encroachments along the canals and tributaries forth with. He also directed taking necessary measures to check illegal mining from Tawi river and other nullahs which has been causing hazards to the environment as also depleting the water table. He asked the SE Hydraulics to take up the matter with the concerned authorities for doing the needful at the earliest.
Chief Engineer, PHE, Jammu, Ashwani Sharma, Chief Engineer, Irrigation & Flood Control, Jammu, K.K. Gupta, Chief Engineer, RTIC, V.K. Badyal gave resume of the functioning of their departments.
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