Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 24: Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Abdul Haq Khan along with the Speaker, Legislative Assembly, Kavinder Gupta and Social Welfare & Forest Minister, Bali Bhagat today laid the foundation stones of two works, marking the launch of a total of 156 number of works, involving nine departments, with a total expenditure of Rs 48 crore, under the Convergence initiative with MGNREGA, in Jammu district.
Two separate functions were held, one marking the foundation stone of Horticulture Department’s up gradation of Fruit Plant Nursery at Garhi, Mishriwala and another of Education Department’s “development of playfield at Higher Secondary School, Sunjwan.
Speaking on the occasion, the RDD Minister mentioned that a convergence component of Rs 1100 lakh has been approved under MGNREGA for Jammu district which will provide Viability Gap Funding to an expenditure of nearly Rs 3700 lakh being incurred by Horticulture, Sericulture, Education, Forest, Rural Development, ICDS, IWMP, PWD(R&B) and Irrigation & Flood Control Departments under different Centrally and State sponsored Schemes, enabling Speedier execution and timely completion of unfinished works.
The Minister further said that the convergence initiative with NREGA will not only ensure speedier execution but also will ensure that the works which started some 10 years ago will finally see the light of the day. Elaborating the plan initiative, he brought out that his department will provide Rs 34 lakh to support the Horticulture department’s funding of Rs 116 lakh in modernizing 11 Fruit plant nurseries. Rs 4 lakh will be provided under NREGA to bring 100 kanals of area under Mulberry plantation thereby supporting the efforts of Sericulture department. Rs 58 lakh will be provided to Education Department to complete their 23 works involving an expenditure of Rs 101.13 lakh. Rs 466 lakh will be provided to Rural Development Department to complete works amounting to Rs 1200 lakh.
Further, Rs 488 lakh will be provided to R&B Department to provide longevity and sustenance to its nine roads and bridges which involves a departmental expenditure of Rs 2156 lakh. Last but not the least, a gap funding of Rs 46 lakh under NREGA will ensure to complete three tube wells of Irrigation Department which were taken up under NABARD a decade ago, but could never be completed due to cost escalations.
Khan lauded the efforts of the team led by DDC, Jammu, Simrandeep Singh and the officers of Rural Development Department including the ACD, Showkat Malik and all his BDOs for coming forward in creating assets under the convergence mode. The Minister has asked for circulation of Jammu’s convergence plan document to all the other districts of the State for replication.
Pertinent to mention here that the Chief Minister had categorically asked all DDCs to prepare convergence plans during the DDB meetings held earlier this year.
Others who attended the function included Director School Education, Smita Sethi, Director, Horticulture, Jammu; Director, Rural Development, Jammu, ADDC, Jammu, Anuradha Gupta, Chief Horticulture Officer, Kirtan Singh, Chief Education Officer, JK Sudan, besides a large number of sarpanches, teachers and students.
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