As a follow up, CM directs Admn Secys. to visit areas, monitor dev projects

Jammu: Around six thousand vacancies have been filled by the Services Selection Board and Public Service Commission in the State during the last 10 months while as selection process in respect of ten thousand more gazetted and non gazetted vacancies is in advanced stages and likely to be completed soon.
This was disclosed in a high level meeting of Administrative Secretaries chaired by Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti here Wednesday to review the pace of recruitment and selection processes in the State.
The meeting was also informed that selection of around five hundred doctors by the Public Service Commission would be completed by the end of next month addressing the manpower demand of doctors in the rural areas.
Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister asked the two recruiting agencies to redouble their efforts and complete the selections pending with them at the earliest. She asked the Chairman SSB to fix March 31 as cut off date for clearing all pending selections with it and the PSC to pace up recruitment of staff in Higher Education, Health and Medical Education Departments at the earliest. She also asked the Departments to undertake reviews to know the exact status of vacant positions which could be referred to the recruitment agencies for early selection.
As a follow up of her recent public outreach programs, Mehbooba Mufti directed the Administrative Secretaries of PHE, PDD and Health Departments to visit the field areas, take stock of the completion of development projects and assess the needs of the people there. She said she was upset to know that many big projects in far flung areas are stuck either because of small amounts for completion or due to minor interventions by government functionaries. She asked the Administrative Secretaries to conduct regular visits to areas to know the problems of people and also take periodic reviews of the projects in the field.
The Chief Minister also asked the Administrative Secretaries to keep in touch with the Deputy Commissioners and monitor the spendings in Centrally sponsored schemes and other flagship programs in the State. She asked them to take regular and periodic reviews of these schemes in the districts.
Mehbooba Mufti asked the Health Secretary to work out a plan for disposal of hospital waste in the State, pacing up work on the under construction Medical Colleges and creation of staff for the same. She directed furnishing of a list of doctors who have been detached to their original places of posting after her direction in the matter. She also directed deployment of female nursing staff at the diagnostic units of the Hospitals for the convenience of patients.
The Chief Minister directed the Power Secretary to pace up work on the Alestaing Grid station and ensure that it is completed ahead of the deadline schedule. She also asked him to monitor the power distribution in the State during the winter months and see that people have got the relief after the drawal of additional power from the outside. She also directed speeding up process of installation of street and traffic lights in the cities and towns of the State.
Mehbooba Mufti asked the Education Secretary to take steps for posting Urdu knowing teachers in the schools of Jammu province where they are needed. She also directed urgent completion of hostels for students, construction of auditoriums and posting of other subject specific faculty in the colleges of far flung areas. She was informed that work on 60 such hostels is apace and soon these would be ready for use.
The Chief Minister dwelt upon a host of issues like release of payments under NREGA, posting of tehsildars and SDMs, drug de-addiction, traffic congestion, removal of encroachments and other issues which came up for her attention during her recent public outreach programs.
It may be recalled that as a novel initiative in recent history in the State, the Chief Minister has so far conducted public outreach programs in the eight districts of the State during which she has taken an on spot review of developmental schemes and sought public feedback on the Government’s efforts.
Chief Secretary, B. B. Vyas; Administrative Secretaries of all the Departments; Chairman, SSB, Simrandeep Singh were present in the meeting.