Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 16: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said today that all district SPs and Deputy Commissioners would be “directly accountable’’ for any kind of law and order situation developing within their districts and asked them to use non-lethal weapons only to quell any kind of protests to avert casualties.
Chairing her first high level meeting at her official residence here in winter capital of the State after taking over as the Chief Minister on April 4, Mehbooba, flanked by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh put major responsibility for maintenance of law and order situation and crowd control without use of lethal weapons on the concerned Deputy Commissioners and SSPs.
Home Secretary R K Goyal, Principal Secretary to CM Navin Choudhary, Director General of Police (DGP) K Rajendra Kumar, ADG CID S M Sahai, IGP Jammu Danesh Rana, Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal, DIGs of all Zones and all SSPs and DCs of 10 districts of Jammu region attended the meeting. Ms Mufti had held similar meeting of the DCs and SSPs of Kashmir division in Srinagar recently.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Chief Minister called upon the district SPs and DCs to ensure that there was no use of lethal weapons for crowd control during any kind of protests to avert civilian casualties.
“Only non-lethal weapons should be used to quell the protests,’’ she directed and called for strict adherence to the direction.
“It was responsibility of the district SPs and Deputy Commissioners to ensure that trouble didn’t flare up during protests and the mob is controlled by holding negotiations,’’ the Chief Minister said, adding in no case communal violence should be allowed to erupt and the officers of civil and police administration should maintain liaison with both communities for peace in their areas of jurisdiction.
Though the situation in Jammu region is peaceful, sometimes people in some areas resort to protests on the call of separatists.
Sources said Mehbooba Mufti also called for putting in proper “border management strategy’’ in place in all five border districts of Jammu including Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch.
She told the DCs and SSPs that in case of any firing and shelling from across the border, it would be their responsibility to take care of the civilians and see to it that there was no loss of life.
“If the civilians want to shift to safer areas, it would be responsibility of the SSPs and the DCs to facilitate (the shifting) and help the border dwellers in all possible manners,’’ she said, adding that the Deputy Commissioners should personally supervise ongoing work on the bunkers being constructed for the civilians along the International Border.
Calling for strict surveillance and enhancement of security arrangements in all 10 districts of Jammu region, Mehbooba said peace shouldn’t be allowed to be disturbed at any cost though some “vested interests’’ might try to create trouble.
Calling upon the Deputy Commissioners and the SSPs to be always available to the people, Mehbooba said the DCs must ensure “time bound delivery’’ of all schemes and programmes of the State Government to the people.
“The common man shouldn’t suffer. He should get justice and his work should be done within the minimum possible time,’’ she said as she referred to Right to Information Act (RTI), Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA), e-governance etc.
She called upon the officers to strictly curb the menace of drugs, which has witnessed increase in Jammu region over the past few years. She also called for curbing land mafia.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh called upon the administration to be “people friendly’’ and come up to the expectations of the common man.
Dr Singh said people have high hopes on the Government and bureaucracy has major role to fulfil them.
“The DCs and the SSPs especially should work hard to fulfil aspirations of the people,’’ he added.
An official handout said: Mehbooba said she is confident of overcoming the challenges and focus entirely on ushering in a new era of development in the State. She warned the officers to remain vigilant and not allow the situation to drift so that they lose focus of their real agenda of bringing peace and development in the State,” she stated.
Drawing a clear line of distinction between the issues confronting administration in Kashmir and Jammu regions, the Chief Minister said the officers have to fulfill their obligations to ensure that systems work properly in reaching the grassroots with their proactive participation. She said the year-long working season in Jammu region is a boon as it enables the executing agencies to implement the schemes in a time-bound manner, unlike Kashmir where hostile weather conditions doubled with challenges on the law-and-order front come as major impediments in completing the development projects on time.
“Redressal of public grievances must be the focal point. In case of emergencies, DCs and SSPs should be the first to reach the troubled spot. They should not let things come to a pass where they get out of control,” she observed.
Describing the DCs and SSPs as custodians of development, the Chief Minister said she will closely monitor their performance on a day-to-day basis. She reiterated her earlier direction and asked both DCs and SSPs to meet general public between 3 pm and 5 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week from May 15 for on-spot redressal of public grievances.
Urging the officers to treat their lower staff well, the Chief Minister said reaching out to them in mitigating their problems will reflect positively upon their work thus improving the public delivery mechanism. “I will back the officers who travel the extra mile,” she assured.
Asking civil and police administration to work with greater synergy, Mehbooba singled out land mafia as the biggest challenge before the Government in Jammu region. She underlined the need to formulate a comprehensive strategy to speed up follow-up action once the FIRs are registered against land encroachers, so that the illegally-occupied land is retrieved.
On the issue of finalization of Revised Masterplan for Jammu, the Chief Minister said she will soon convene a meeting to speed up processes so that it is notified for planned development of the winter capital. She asked Divisional Commissioner as well as DCs to chase the completion of formalities to enable execution of projects without any delay. “Already the preparation of DPRs consume a lot of time, derailing our projects from adhering timelines,” she added.
Referring to the complaints of harassment to Kothedars (sheep dealers) while transporting sheep between Pathankot and Lahkhanpur, the Chief Minister directed the DGP and SSP Kathua to take up the issue with their respective counterparts in Punjab so that the matter is resolved.
Advising the officers to take a leaf out of the best practices which have been successfully adopted by their colleagues in other States, Mehbooba Mufti dwelt at length on improving services to be delivered under Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA), especially related to obtaining state subjects and ration cards, passport clearances, birth and death certificates and NoCs regarding verification of character antecedents from the police.
In order to facilitate specially-challenged people, the Chief Minister directed the district administrations to deliver Disability Certificates right at their doorsteps.
The Chief Minister touched several issues related to promotion of Jammu as an independent tourist destination, promoting entrepreneurship by entrenching Single Window Clearance Mechanism and adhering to timelines in completion of various development projects.
The Chief Minister made special reference to a number of scenic tourist destinations like Ranjit Sagar Dam in Basohli, Noori Chambh in Rajouri, Jai in Bhaderwah and Warwan in Kishtwar which can catapult Jammu as an independent tourist destination, thus providing a fillip to the travel industry in this region.
Mehbooba Mufti directed the SSPs to deal effectively with normal crimes, especially those committed against women, and youth falling prey to scourge of drugs.
The Chief Minister also flagged scientific disposal of waste as a major task for each of the Deputy Commissioners. “Segregation of waste at source will be the key to entrench solid waste management successfully,” she added.
Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal briefed the Chief Minister about the present status of issues related to land acquisition, especially along the National Highway, construction of modern abattoirs, removal of encroachments for restoring public spaces, better traffic management and reconciliation of BPL data between different departments for successful implementation of NFSA. He also informed the meeting about the progress achieved in installing biometric system of attendance in various departments.
Later, the Chief Minister was briefed about the developmental activities as well those related to law-and-order by DCs and SSPs of Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Kathua, Kishtwar, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, Ramban and Reasi districts.
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