Make design of Govt deptts compatible with their functioning: CM to planners, executors

Srinagar/May,26: Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti has impressed upon the project executors and policy planners to factor in the emerging requirements of Government organizations while designing and constructing office spaces for them.
Chairing a meeting to review the accommodation status of Government Departments here Monday, the Chief Minister said the functions and duties of Government offices being diverse and changing, care should be taken to subsume them while designing space for them. “Rather than creating a mass of general concrete, a particular Department should have a building which responds to its specific requirements and needs, she observed.
The Chief Minister directed having facilities of public convenience, resting, meeting and waiting halls, presentations etc under one roof so that the individual Departments perform their functions with ease and without any difficulty.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister was informed that additional office blocks would be constructed at Civil Secretariat premises at Srinagar and Jammu costing around Rs. 150 crore. These blocks would be constructed on modular pattern wherein an entire Department would be housed in one wing or floor.
Mehbooba Mufti directed achieving physical targets corresponding to the expenditure and making the same functional at the earliest. She directed completion of two floors every year in these proposed constructions.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister also reviewed the pace of work on other ambitious developmental projects in the State. She reviewed the progress registered so far on all the five medical colleges, polytechnics and engineering colleges and other connectivity projects in the State.
Mehbooba Mufti was informed that Poshwari bridge in Anantnag district is complete and about to be thrown open while as the bridge at Sallar would be completed by this year end.
Similarly, the meeting was informed, work on two engineering colleges at Safapura and Kathua and all the five polytechnic colleges is apace and many of these would be completed by the end of this year or early next year.
The Chief Minister directed further pacing up of work on these projects so that regular class work is started at the earliest. She also directed completion of residential accommodations for employees at Sarwal, Jammu before the onset of Darbar move.
Chief Secretary, B. B. Vyas; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Secretary, R&B, Sanjeev Verma; Director, Estates, Tassaduq Jeelani; MD, JK PCC, Dileep Thusu and other officers were present in the meeting.