*Majority of members unaware of step taken by Govt
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 14: Incredible it may sound but it is a fact that issues of vital public importance are handled with utmost slackness in Jammu and Kashmir and are dumped once for all by constituting committees, which either don’t meet or their members remain unaware of task assigned to them.
This can be gauged from the outcome of the Standing Committee on ensuring development of railway stations in the State, which was constituted by the General Administration Department that plays crucial role in facilitating the Government to take key decisions.
On April 1, 2016, vide Order No.293-GAD, a Standing Committee was constituted to facilitate issuance of clearances like mutation of land, change of land use, No-Objection Certificates from local bodies etc in a time-bound manner for redevelopment of Jammu Tawi and Udhampur Railway Stations to the international standards.
In the order, it was mentioned that Financial Commissioner Planning and Development Department will be the Chairman of the Standing Committee with Administrative Secretaries of Forest, Housing and Urban Development, Power Development, Public Works, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control and Revenue Departments are its members. Even the Divisional Commissioner Jammu and the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Udhampur were shown as members of the Standing Committee.
However, the Standing Committee has not met even once since its constitution despite the fact that it had to play crucial role in the redevelopment of two important railway stations of the State, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “what to talk of holding meeting(s) even several officers shown as members of the Standing Committee in the order of the General Administration Department are not aware of its constitution”.
This is notwithstanding the fact that copies of the order relating to formulation of Standing Committee have been shown as sent to all the members of the Committee as well as to the office of Chief Secretary and Private Secretary to Union Minister for Railways. The Ministry, in a number of communications to the State Government, has laid stress on proper coordination from the State authorities to resolve all the issues related to railway network in Jammu and Kashmir besides enhancing facilities for the travelers in two important railway stations-Jammu Tawi and Udhampur.
Several members of the Standing Committee, when contacted by EXCELSIOR to ascertain the work done by the panel especially with regard to redevelopment of Jammu Tawi and Udhampur Railway Stations to international standards fanned ignorance about their being part of the panel.
“When this panel was constituted and what are its terms and references”, asked one of the members of the Standing Committee when contacted, adding “I have not received any such order from any quarters in the Government”.
Another officer asked, “who is the signatory of the order and what exercise the Standing Committee was supposed to conduct”, adding “I don’t know with which objective this panel was constituted”.
“This clearly indicates that either some vital communication links between different wings of the Government are missing or the issue of extending help to the Railways Ministry in facilitating redevelopment of Jammu Tawi and Udhampur Railway Stations has been dumped by framing a panel of officers”, sources said.
“What is the objective behind constituting such committees which either don’t meet or their members remain unaware of the task they are supposed to do”, sources asked and stressed that the Government should set up a mechanism to ascertain the functioning of the committees on vital public issues otherwise the objectives behind their set-up remain defeated.
According to the sources, redevelopment of Jammu Tawi Railway Station is imperative as it still lags behind in proper upkeep, better crowd management and upgraded services. Similarly, much infrastructure is required to be created at Udhampur Railway Station as with the extension of train services up to Katra, there is sharp increase in number of passengers, which will further go up following establishment of link with the Kashmir valley following opening of Katra-Banihal section.
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