‘J&K set to achieve ODF+ status’
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 4: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today stressed on the officers of the Agriculture Production Department to plan well ahead of the fruit season for giving unhindered access to the fruit laden trucks on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Dr Mehta was speaking in a meeting called to review the overall implementation of schemes in Horticulture sector in J&K. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, APD; Director Horticulture Kashmir/Jammu; MD, Horticulture Planning & Marketing besides other officers of the Department.
Chief Secretary maintained that shortly the horticultural produce is ripening and needs to be moved to mandis outside. He directed the concerned to plan well ahead in coordination with the Traffic authorities so that this perishable crop reaches timely to its markets.
He also enjoined upon them to assist the farmers in fetching good price for their produce. He also asked for looking into the issue of fixing genuine freight for transportation of the cash crop.
He called on them to follow evidence based decision making for producing the better outcomes. He asked them to strategize for several years and follow it up till set objectives are not met.
The Chief Secretary emphasized on replacing the traditional senile varieties of fruit trees with the new High Density (HD) plant varieties which bears multiple times more crop than the traditional ones. He advised the Department to visit the farmers and demonstrate to them about the benefits of adopting these novel varieties of fruit trees so that farmers readily go for this transformative exercise.
While speaking during the meeting, the Principal Secretary, APD, Shailendra Kumar apprised the meeting that around 1.65 lakh hectares of land has been converted into the High Density (HD) plantations in the UT. He mentioned that all of these plantations are new and added to the already established orchards here.
He further added that the government is well on track to convince more and more farmers to adopt these high yielding varieties which produce 5-15 times more crop than the traditional ones.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary impressed upon the officers of the Rural Development Department (RDD) to work in coordination with each other to realize the set targets of providing ‘Housing to All’ and prevalence of ‘Zero Poverty’ in J&K by the year 2024.
Dr Mehta was speaking in a meeting called to review the overall functioning of the RDD. The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary, RDD; Director Panchayat; Director Rural Development Kashmir/Jammu; Director Rural Sanitation besides other officers of the Department.
The Chief Secretary made out that the accomplishment of goals like developing rural infrastructure and ensuring the sanitation of rural areas are the thrust areas of the Department. He stated that as discussed time and again the officers of the Department especially those manning the local offices should work towards making these areas livable offering best of the facilities to the rural population.
He recalled that the UT is going to cover about 1.9 lakh houses under PMAY this year which are enough to saturate the housing needs of all the houseless persons here. He observed that the UT has made tremendous progress on many parameters during last few years including creation of AmritSarovars, door to door collection of waste, construction of houses under PMAY etc.
While presenting the performance of the Department, the Commissioner Secretary, RDD, Mandeep Kaur informed the meeting that J&K has been among the top performing States/UTs in implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission (G) by securing ODF+ status to all of its villages.
She gave out that the Department has constructed around 2607 AmritSarovars so far and has issued 13.9 lakh job cards. She also said that under PMAY (G), 139529 houses have been completed so far and more 202603 are to be completed soon.
It was revealed that the Department was successful in creating thousands of employments for the rural youth under JKRLM, SVEP and MKSP as well. It was said that 83062 SHGs have been created to whom the revolving fund to the tune of Rs 124.59 Cr were provided through credit linkages.
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