*Union Secretary for timely submission of UCs
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 23: Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma reviewed the status of various flagship programmes of Central Government at a high-level meeting of officers held here today under his chairmanship.
Union Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Pankaj Jain, Commissioner/Secretary, PHE, Dr. Pawan Kotwal, Chief Engineer PHE, Kashmir, A.M. Lanker, Chief Engineer PHE, Jammu, K.K. Gupta, Executive Director, CCDU, Bharti Vaid, Director Rural Development, Kashmir and other senior officers of State Government were present in the meeting.
Expressing satisfaction over the performance of various schemes, the Minister stressed the need for a coordinated approach to clear various bottlenecks in achieving the targets. He asked for strengthening the monitoring mechanism and close liaison with the Central Government for ensuring timely funds. He directed the Chief Engineers to ensure timely submission of Utilization Certificates to the Centre on each project which is mandatory for timely release of funds.
The Minister discussed several issues related to the implementation of PHE schemes with the Union Secretary and urged him to consider Jammu and Kashmir as a special State in view of its tough topography and provide adequate funds for undertaking new schemes and improve the existing infrastructure.
He asked him to explore provision of funds for meeting additional requirements of drinking water, particularly in rural and kandi belt through tanker service. He assured him that State Government will ensure timely submission of UCs and strengthen the monitoring mechanism to speed up the progress to complete the project in a time bound manner.
He called for introducing reformative measures to improve things on ground, adding that State must make best use of PRIs for ensuring best use of water and monitoring the schemes. He also stressed the need for setting up of Regional Water Testing Laboratories to ensure regular water tests to improve quality of water and conservation of water sources.
The Union Secretary asked the CCDU Executive Director to hire the services of some prominent NGOs of national level for sensitizing the masses about the water usages, water borne diseases and sanitation. He asked for organizing seminars at the block level to reach out to the people at the grass root level.
Dr. Pawan Kotwal briefed the meeting about the physical and financial achievements on each scheme. He assured the Union Secretary to achieve the targets well within the stipulated time frame.
Later, the Minister in a separate meeting reviewed the overall drinking water scenario and progress of various on-going PHE schemes and Irrigation projects in the Kashmir valley.
Chief Engineer, Irrigation & Flood Control, Mir Javed Jaffer, Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers from the Valley were present in the meeting.
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