Mayor meets CS, discusses issues of public concern

Mayor Jammu, Rajinder Sharma during a meeting with Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta at Jammu on Thursday.
Mayor Jammu, Rajinder Sharma during a meeting with Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta at Jammu on Thursday.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 20: The Mayor Jammu, Rajinder Sharma met Chief Secretary (CS), Dr. Arun Mehta here, today and discussed various issues of public importance with him.
The Mayor discussed the concept of Construction Surveillance System for Jammu city under which construction works can be monitored from the concerned office to stop the ongoing extortion by Enforcement Officers.
Another issue discussed was preventing Nallahs from falling into river Tawi so that the upcoming artificial lake in Tawi may remain clean and hygienic.
The compounding of the buildings made without Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) permission along with introducing the Building Bylaws to give relief to the people and streamlining of the existing Bylaws was also discussed so that people can read these laws and get the site plan approved.
The Mayor also discussed the concept of e-offices to avoid people falling victim to the clerical apathy and to have the work done on first come first serve basis.
The burning issue of polythene ban and narcotic addiction was also discussed and Mayor stated that polythene use has created a lot of problem for modern urbanization and has resulted in shrinking and pollution of water bodies.
He proposed that carry bags made of cellulose and starch should be put to public use as these can get easily decomposed in soil.
Sharma chalked out a plan on how to make Jammu a drug addiction free region and suggested that de-addiction should be done for those who have fallen prey to the menace of drug addiction while the drug smugglers be put behind the bars and Public Safety Act should (PSA) be slapped on the big gangsters running this inhuman trade.
Rajinder Sharma demanded approval for Rs. 84 crore under different heads so that the Nallahs in city can be repaired, constructed and reconstructed.
He also demanded drawing and disbursement powers to Executive Engineers of JMC as JMC Commissioner being over occupied and has no time for such tasks.
Speeding up of work on Tawi Lake ensuring quality work was also discussed and a third party audit was demanded to avoid any misappropriation of funds and to ensure transparency.
Sharma said that the allotment of parking slots along road sides shall be audited and the audit report containing irregularity, if any, shall be reported to the CS for action so that no employee of JMC gets involved in corruption.
He proposed that level of the park at Gole Market in Gandhi Nagar shall be brought down to the road level and Tricolour be hoisted in the middle of it after removing the rotary.
Decongesting of old Jammu city was also discussed with the CS and Mayor proposed that a parking place be constructed at Bhagwati Nagar under Tawi bridge.