BANDIPORA: Principal Secretary, Transport, Animal and Sheep Husbandry Department Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon on Saturday chaired a meeting of officers to review the development activities in Bandipora district.
The meeting was attended by District Development Commissioner Bandipora Shahbaz Ahmad Mirza, Additional District Development Commissioner Mohammad Yousuf Mir, Additional Deputy Commissioner Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Assistant Commissioner Revenue Reyaz Ahmad Beigh, Joint Director Planning Imtiyaz Ahmad , Heads of various departments, District officers and other senior officers of the district.
On the occasion DDC Bandipora gave a detailed account of various developmental works undergoing in different sectors and briefed the chair about the progress on implementation several projects besides discussing the issues that hinder the pace of work.
Dr Samoon who is also in-charge Secretary district Bandipora directed the officers of various departments including Tourism, Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Forest, Fisheries and other departments to explore possibilities in the district that can provide more job avenues to the people of the district. He said a large number of people earn livelihood from the Wullar lake and it has a potential to further increase the job providing capacity if it fully brought on the tourism map. He called for developing eco-friendly infrastructure so that more tourists are attracted to the place so that the locals living along the banks are able to earn their livelihood. He urged the officers to come up with innovative ideas to give flip to different agro-based sectors so that more educated youth are attracted for establishing income generating units.
While review various sectors, he urged the officers to work in close coordination so that the bottlenecks that hinder the implementation of works , are removed at earliest. He said several projects linger for long time just because of weak coordination among various departments.
Dr Samoon reviewed the status of macademisation of Srinagar-Bandipora road, Bandipora-Gurez-Tulail Road, up-gradation and widening of Bandipora-Sopore road, status of under-construction District Hospital Bandipora, Badampora-Bandipora Transmission Line and other vital projects of public importance in the district.
The meeting discussed threadbare the issues that hinder the completion of these projects and directions were passed to remove the bottlenecks and expedite the work so that projects can be completed at earliest.
Earlier the meeting was informed that 24.75 Kilometres of road length has been macadamized till date against a target of 104.93 kilometers this year. It was given out that there are eight sanctioned projects under CRF including six road projects of length 78 Kms costing Rs 105.90 crores including Arin-Bandipora road, Sumbal-Bandipora road, Authwatoo-Mantrigam-Bankoot-Sonerwani road and two bridges at Hakbara and Arin. Meeting was informed that five projects shall be completed this year and Rs 49.74 Cr have been spend so far on these projects.
While discussing some of the languishing projects, the meeting was informed that 90 percent of work as per old DPR has been completed and finishing work of OT and medical gas pipeline in ground floor is in progress. The emeting also discussed the status of CHC Hajin, PHC Gund Jahangir, NTPHC Zoormianz, PHC Madwan and NTPHC Dangerpora. It was given out that 80 percent of the work has been completed on Polytechnic College Watapora Bandipora while the main building of PHC Ashtingo has been made functional and the construction of residential quarters is at final stage.
Meeting also discussed the status of existing and under-construction water supply schemes in the district. It was informed that 255 habiotaions are fully covered under various water supply schemes benfitting 3.25 lakh souls while 160 habitations are partially covered sofar. It was given out that 47 WSS are targeted to be completed this year at the cost of Rs 20.30 crores including three schemes under district sector, four under NRDWP and 40 under languishing projects.
On the occasion DDC Bandipora also highlighted the requirement of manpower at the 50-bedded Maternity and Childcare Hospital at Sonerwani being constructed under CSR funds (KGHEP ) at a cost of Rs 18 crore. He further stated that an action plan of Horticulture expansion has been framed for an amount of Rs 245.50 lakh for 2019-2020 and Rs 673 lakh for 2020-21 and several projects will be taken up under this action plan including establishment of High Density Apple Orchards, Fruit Mandi, Walnut Germ Plasm Bank, Hi-Tech Apple Nursery for propagation of plants, Moderate Density Orchards in Gurez and Fruit and Vegetable Craft Centre besides establishment of Cold Storage in PPP Mode.
With regard to the Solid Waste Management, DDC Bandipora informed that 92 Kanals of land has been identified for establishment of Solid-Waste Management Project on cluster basis at Sumbal. He said the existing dumping site near the Wullar lake has been closed and a new patch of 30 Kanals of Land has been identified at Zalwan Bandipora for dumping of garbage till the project at Sumbal is approved. Dr Samoon directed to expedite the work for early establishment of waste management projects.
While reviewing the education sector, Dr Samoon stressed on rationalization of staff in government schools to maintain standard Student-Teacher ratio in schools of remote villages. The meeting was informed that there 72254 studenst enrolled in government and private educational institutions of the district upto higher secondary level. It was given out that electricity has been provided to 259 schools so far while work is on to provide in 167 left out schools while water supply has been provided in 419 schools and toilets in 466 schools out of the total 493 Government schools of the Bandipora district.
Meeting was informed that two Middle school buildings were completed at the cost of Rs 1.22 crore and handed over to the department including MS Plan Bandipora and MS Jurnail Gurez while two school buildings at secondary level were also completed at the cost of Rs 1.30 lakh and handed over to the education department during the last financial year while five buildings have been targeted to be completed during the current financial year including two buildings of middle schools, one primary school, and two buildings of High Schools.
