Bandipora: Principal Secretary, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, the visiting officer for Bandipora, on Monday visited Bandipora town as part of “My Town My Pride” programme aiming at reaching out to urban people at their doorsteps to ensure on spot redressal of their issues and grievances.
District Development Commissioner, Dr Owais Ahmad, Senior Superintendent of Police, Rahul Malik, Chairman Municipal Council Bandipora, Basharat Ahmad, Joint Director Planning, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer, Municipal Council, Wali Mohammad and other senior officers of the district were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary said “My Town My Pride” is an initiative to strengthen Urban Local Self-Governance and serve the people with responsive, accountable and participatory governance. He said the programme has three main objectives – public outreach in towns, strengthening grass-root democracy and service delivery at doorsteps, he added.
Samoon said that during the public outreach programmes of Jan Abhiyan, Back to Village and now My Town, My Pride, the officers are coming out of their offices and reaching out to the people to listen to their grievances at their doorsteps and get on-spot feedback of the service delivery system at grass roots level. He said the officers are also getting benefitted by these programmes by getting sensitized about the ground situation that will ultimately benefit them while dealing with rural and urban development issues in their offices.
Samoon said government is akin to the development issues of Bandipora and is committed to bring the district back on track of development. He said Bandipora has a huge potential of tourism and efforts are being made to promote the sector in the district.
He also stressed on skill development among youth to eradicate unemployment. He said the new education policy focuses on skill development as it will help in making the new generation self reliant adding that more market oriented trades have been introduced in ITIs and Polytechnics to make younger generation trained in skills that are required in market.
Meanwhile, Samoon visited different stalls put up by different departments to showcase their performances and also to inform the public about various welfare schemes being offered by them.
Earlier, students of different schools presented skits highlighting the urban issues including traffic mess and pollution of water bodies.
Dr Owais Ahmad gave a brief presentation on various ongoing development projects in the Bandipora town. He said the programme aims to strengthen the democracy at grass roots level where the people become part of the decision making process and decide about utilization of funds meant for development of their wards.
During the programme, Dr Samoon distributed education kits, wheelchairs, hearing aids and other appliances among differently abled children and about 250 domicile certificates among the beneficiaries. He also gave away awards and appreciation letters to winners of painting and poster competition among students.
Later, Dr Samoon visited Government Polytechnic College Bandipora and interacted with the students and staff who apprised him of various issues being faced by them. He also inspected One Stop Centre at Nishat Park besides laying the foundation stone of a shopping complex and inaugurated lavatory complex at New Bus Stand Nussu.
At Municipal Committee Sumbal, Visiting Officer Dr Firdous Ahmad Giri, Secretary Board of Professional Examination visited Sumbal Municipal Committee along with SDM Sumbal while Director Handicrafts and Handloom Masrat-ul-Islam visited Hajin Municipality along with Additional Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Zahoor Ahmad Mir.
