Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 8: Reiterating resolve of the Government to have fully strengthened Panchayati Raj Institutions, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand today said that empowerment of Panchayats have given new dimensions to development profile of the State ensuring better planning and implementation of welfare and development programmes at grass root level.
He said Panchayats can also play a pivotal role in making people aware of various welfare programmes and development initiatives launched by the Government for all round development and benefit of all sections of the society.
“Local Panchayat representatives have a better feel of the pulse of the people and are in a better position to serve their respective areas by properly identifying and executing the development works and welfare schemes”, he added.
Mr. Tara Chand was addressing a large gathering on the occasion of one day mega awareness camp held at Khour, Akhnoor, today.
Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir, Minister for Higher Education, Employment and Labour Abdul Gani Malik were also present on the occasion.
Among others the camp was attended by District Development Commissioner, Jammu Sanjeev Verma, Director Agriculture Ajay Khajuria, Director, Urban Local Bodies F.C. Bhagat and other senior level engineers and sectoral officers of various departments of the district.
On the occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister and Ministers distributed 40 Kissan Credit Cards (KCC) and 30 cheques to construction workers.
The objective of the camp was to create awareness among the people especially youth about the State and Centrally sponsored schemes meant for their welfare.
Underscoring need to promote mass awareness about Government schemes, the Deputy Chief Minister said series of camps have been organized for making people aware about different welfare and employment schemes launched under SKEWPY, urban development and other departments for addressing the needs of people.
He said KCC is a landmark initiative for making timely advances to the farmers and to avoid frequent formalities in getting loan from the banks.
Speaking on the occasion, the Agriculture Minister said that agriculture sector employees major chunk of the population and need of the hour is to make it more attractive, so that farmers do not need to look out to other avenues. The Government endeavors a lot to introduce advance technology in the farming sector to boost agriculture production besides raising socio economic standards of farmers, he added.
He said latest agriculture research and technology has to be brought to the farms and utilized for maximizing the yield and profit, so that youth also get attracted to the sector.
Mr. Mir said that Kissan Credit Card is an effective tool for providing soft loans to the farming community for different agriculture related activities and saves the farmer from the clutches of private lenders. He said to make the sector a profitable venture its scope needs to be extended to allied activities of bee keeping, dairy farming, sericulture, poultry and mushroom farming.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Malik appealed the youth to avail optimum benefit from SKEWPY scheme, which not only ensures voluntary service allowance but promotes entrepreneur culture among the youth. He said need of the hour is to look beyond the Government sector and train the youth for facing challenges of the coming times.
He said aim of the flagship SKEWPY is to extend a helping hand to unemployed by extending counseling and motivating them to get equipped with the employable skills as needed in the present market economy.
Mr. Malik called upon the Panchayat members to play their role in making people aware of various employment and other welfare schemes of the Government, so that more and more people come out to avail the benefit of these schemes.
Calling for promoting transparency in the administration, he said time has come when malpractices and corruption needs to be dealt with strong hands once and for all, adding that awareness campaigns and grievance cells have to be taken to every nook and corner of the State, so that people become aware of their rights and can demand the same from the Government machinery. Public Service Guarantee Act has taken majority of public services under its fold and now those not delivering on time would be taken to task, he added.
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