Sagar asks officers to incorporate suggestions, directions of panches, sarpanches

SRINAGAR: An amount of Rs. 38.75 crore has been spent on treating 65744 hectares of land under Integrated Watershed Development Programme (IWDP) project in the State till September this year .
The information was given out in a review meeting convened under the chairmanship of Minister for Rural Development, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar here today.
Commissioner Secretary, RDD, Mr. F. A. Peer, Directors RDD Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Shafiq Raina and Mr. Jehangir Mir, Project officers and senior officers of the department participated.
While impressing upon the officers to ensure that the scheme is implemented fully, the Minister said that the benefit of the same should be utilized to the maximum so that proper harvesting of rainwater for the purpose of irrigation, plantation, and pasture development to create sustainable sources of income as well as drinking water to ensure overall development of rural areas through gram panchayats is ensured.
Mr. Sagar also asked the officers to work in close coordination with other allied departments so that the scheme is implemented on a fast track and coordinated basis which would ensure that the funds earmarked for the same are being judiciously utilized besides effective monitoring would also be ensured.
The Minister also directed the officers to facilitate the working of the recently elected Panchayati Raj Institution representatives, so that the effective decentralization of powers which has been promulgated by the necessary government orders is ensured. “The government has already ensured the empowerment of the Panchayati Raj representatives and the necessary orders have already been issued in this regard and we have to ensure that the same is being implemented on the ground as well so that the notions which are being created by certain vested interests are dispelled. The officers should ensure that they should pay heed and due respect to the suggestions as well as directions of the panches and sarpanches of their respective areas”, he added.
Mr. Sagar also chaired a review meeting of the Total Sanitation Campaign(TSC) and directed the officers to make sure that the scheme is being implemented so that the people living in rural and far-flung areas of the state derive maximum benefit out of it.
It was given out in the meeting that an amount of Rs. 4.38 crore has been spent under the scheme till September by constructing 8654 individual household and 344 institutional latrines.