Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 18: Gove-rnor NN Vohra has asked Chief Secretary BR Sharma to hold high level review of progress under Central flagship programme of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in which the Central Government had allotted only three cities for development to Jammu and Kashmir while the erstwhile PDP-BJP Government had been pressing for four.
“The high level review has been scheduled for tomorrow morning,” official sources said, adding that Administrative Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department, Bipul Pathak, who currently holds powers of the Minister for H&UDD in the absence of popular Government and other top officials of Department assigned the task of executing the `Mission AMRUT’ will attend the review meeting after which the Chief Secretary will brief the Governor.
The Government has assigned additional charge of `Mission Director’ for development of AMRUT cities to Pathak, they said and added that Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations and Anantnag Municipal Council, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), Jammu and Srinagar Development Authorities and all other concerned Departments will work under the `Mission Director’ for development of the cities.
Only three cities of Jammu and Kashmir—Jammu, Srinagar and Anantnag were approved by the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Development headed by BJP leader M Vankiah Naidu even as the erstwhile State Government continued to press for covering four cities in the State under AMRUT—two each for Jammu and Kashmir regions.
The previous Government had recommended name of Katra town, which serves as base camp for holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji, as fourth city for development under the AMRUT but the Centre had rejected the proposal on the ground that Katra didn’t fulfill the norm of minimum one lakh population of the town to be covered under the Centre’s flagship programme.
Jammu, Srinagar and Anantnag cities have above one lakh population. In fact, sources pointed out, these were the only three cities in the State, which have over one lakh population and were covered under AMRUT. The Government also wanted Leh and Kargil in Ladakh region to be covered under AMRUT but they fell well short of the population criteria.
“Though the Government of India had relaxed norms of minimum 10 lakh population criteria for development of ‘Smart Cities’, they have refused to give concessions to the State for development of 500 AMRUT towns in the country, which was the reason that only three towns of the State fell in the category,” sources said.
Each town, selected under AMRUT, will be given Rs 100 crores by the Centre Government for development of the town including modernization of all facilities required to be called a ‘model city’. The funding will come in the phases.
Sources said whenever the new popular Government is formed again in the State, it was expected to take up the inclusion of Katra town for development as ‘model city’, in relaxation of population norms as it will serve twin purposes-one, both regions of Jammu and Kashmir will get two towns each under AMRUT and second, the holy town and base camp of Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine will become a ‘model city’, which was need of the hour keeping in view the ever increasing rush of pilgrims to Katra town especially after its connectivity with rail service.
On its part, the Government is presently going ahead with development of three cities-Jammu, Srinagar and Anantnag under AMRUT, which have been cleared by the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Development.
Sources said Chief Secretary BR Sharma will tomorrow hold detailed review of the progress made by various Departments under AMRUT and will later brief the Governor on its progress.
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