‘New fleet of buses to be augmented in accident prone areas’
JAMMU: Expressing concern over the frequent road accidents in hilly areas especially in erstwhile Doda district, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) is being roped in to conduct detailed survey and formulate report suggesting remedial measures to check these accidents. He said the institute would be asked to prepare the report within the shortest possible time.
“Road accidents in Doda-Kishtwar and other hilly districts in Jammu region have remained of greater concern to the Governmentsâ€, he said adding that a comprehensive strategy is required to address this problem and CRRI is the right institute to be involved in this matter.
The Chief Minister said that a new fleet of SRTC buses would be added to the present one plying in accident prone areas especially in erstwhile Doda district to augment the transport facilities and reduce the chances of accidents due to overloads and aged vehicles. “It has been observed that accident percentage of SRTC buses plying in accident prone areas is zero, as such, focus is being given to enhance the SRTC fleet to a greater extent to be operated in these areasâ€, he added.
Reviewing the District Development Plans for 2011-12 of Doda and Samba districts here in separate District Development Board meetings, the Chief Minister directed the officers to ensure prompt and timely submission of utilization certificates so that funds flow smoothly and works are completed in the prescribed time frame.
“No excuse in this regard will be acceptedâ€, he told the District Administration giving warning for stern administrative action against the erring officials. “I do not want to hear any excuse in this regard. If funds are used, you should prefer utilization certificate without wasting any timeâ€, he asserted asking the officers to take it as his directive.
The meetings were attended by Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Industries, S. S. Slathia, Minister of State for Rural Development, Ajaz Ahmad Khan, Advisors to the Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul and Devender Singh Rana, MP Lal Singh, Vice Chairmen of various Advisory Boards, Rashpal Sharma, Kuldeep Raj Verma, B. A. Naaz, M. A. Bukhari, Swarn Lata and Legislators Mohammad Sharief Niaz, Abdul Majid Wani, Ashok Kumar, Najeeb Suharwordhy, Naresh Gupta, Durga Dass, Yashpal Kundal and Master Noor Hussain.
Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Principal Secretary R&B, K. B. Agarwal, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal, various Administrative Secretaries, Heads of the Departments and District Development Commissioners, Doda and Samba, Farooq Ahmad Khan and Mubarak Singh and district officers were also participated in the meeting.
The Chief Minister asked the District Administrations to create adequate awareness among the people regarding Public Service Guarantee Act and SKEWPY initiatives. He said that both the two initiatives are significantly important to make public service delivery prompt and time bound and provide livelihood earning opportunities to unemployed youth.
“There is urgent need of making people fully aware of the provisions of PSGA and SKEWPY so that they take best advantage of these initiativesâ€, he maintained.
The Chief Minister asked the District Administrations to put in redouble efforts in completing the ongoing schemes within the current 11th Five Year Plan so that these are not carried on to 12th Five Year Plan.
Giving brief of the achievements registered in Doda district during the current financial year by the end of January 2012, District Development Commissioner, Farooq Ahmad Khan told the meeting that 79.67 percent of funds have been incurred on various works in the district. He said an amount of Rs. 43.61 crores have been spent in the district during this period out of the Rs. 54.74 crores availability.
District Development Commissioner, Samba, Mubarak Singh informed the meeting that 84 percent expenditures have been booked in the district this financial year by January end. He said out of Rs. 45.10 crores availability funds to the tune of Rs. 38 crores have been spent on various development works in the district.
District Development Commissioners presented details of performance achieved on physical and financial fronts in the districts of Doda and Samba through PowerPoint presentations elaborated sector-wise achievements.
Presenting resume of flagship programmes, the District Development Commissioner, Doda said that under MGNREGA Rs. 43.27 crores have been incurred in the district resulting in completion of 5198 works. He said that under PMGSY Rs. 23.76 crores have been spent on the completion and upgradation of rural roads in the district. He said 74 road projects are under execution in Doda district under PMGSY at present. He said under SSA 557 primary school buildings and 24 middle school buildings have been completed in the district out of 792 construction works taken in hand. He said that construction of 211 school buildings is presently going on.
The District Development Commissioner, Samba in his presentation stated that Rs. 10.58 crores have been spent under MGNREGA this year by January end resulting in completion of 502 works while 536 are presently in progress. As many as 3.93 lakh man-days have been generated under MGNREGA. He said that Rs. 8.28 crores have been spent under SSA.
Parliament Member and Legislators highlighted various issues relating to the development of constituencies they represent. (KMW NEWS)Â