Avtar Bhat
KATHUA, May 22: In a bid to accelerate the development process in this border State, Union Minister of State in PMO with Independent Charge of North Eastern States and Youth Services and Sports, Dr Jitendra Singh today laid the foundation stone of yet another bridge in Kathua district and announced Rs two crore for construction of ponds in the district under PM’s nationwide programme of constructing five lakh ponds all over the country.
The Rs 44 crore 1020 metre span bridge to be constructed over river Ujh at village Pandori in Nagri Parole area of the district will be completed in two years by Border Roads Organization (BRO).
The inauguration function was attended by MLA Kathua, Rajiv Jasrotia, Director General BRO, Lt Gen Suresh Sharma and Chief Engineer Project Samparak, Brig Batacharya among other civil, BRO officers and political leaders.
Addressing a mammoth public rally on the occasion after laying the foundation stone of the bridge, Dr Singh said that this will be now the third game change bridge in Kathua district after Atal Sethu in Basohli and Kerriyan Gandyal bridge on river Ravi on which work is going to start shortly.
Dr Singh said that various development projects which are going to change the fate of the people in the entire region have been started while others are in pipeline.
He said three more bridges will be constructed on different rivers in Hiranagar area and their foundation will be laid soon. He said bridge on Ujh will benefit over three lakh people in this border belt and act as a life line for the area as it will link the two constituencies of Kathua and Hiranagar.
He said to boost the tourism potential in Bhaderwah and Bani areas a proposal for parallel Highway has already been submitted to Defence Ministry by him via Chanderkala in Bhaderwah. This road will directly link Bhaderwah with Himachal Pradesh also on which a long tunnel will also be constructed. However, to assess the feasibility of tunnel, Defence Minister, Manohar Parikkar deputed BRO, DG Lt. Gen. Suresh Sharma to the area to make the preliminary survey, Dr Singh added.
He said in its report submitted by DG BRO, it was confirmed that there is total feasibility of constructing the tunnel and now the formal survey will be made on the construction of the same. However, this is long term project for which the proposal has been given and it has been responded by the Defence Ministry.
He said out of five lakh ponds to be constructed in the country to meet the drought situation in future, 12000 ponds will be constructed in J&K State and 60 to 80 such ponds will be constructed in Kathua district. This district will however, take lead in construction of the ponds in entire region as work on them will begin soon, he added.
To take the State on the path of development further, Dr Singh announced that a proposal for establishing of a Seed Processing Unit either in Kathua or Udhampur has also been submitted to Ministry of Agriculture to cater to the needs of the farmers in the region. Besides, an animal breeding farm in collaboration with NABARD will also be established for the benefit of the farming community and the proposal for the same has also been submitted by him, Dr Singh added.
Taking serious exception that the authorities in Kathua district have not issued the soil testing cards to the farmers as yet, he urged them to issue these cards immediately. He said soil testing be done immediately so that it can be ascertained that which soil can be fruitful for which crop.
The Union Minister also announced that Kathua and Udhampur districts will take a lead to entire State in electrification of all villages by March next year under Deendayal Upadhayay Jeevan Jyoti Yojna.
He, however, said the villages will be electrified under the scheme but supply of power has to be ensured by State Government.
Maintaining that the woes of farmers in Kathua and Samba districts will end now who were otherwise facing the water scarcity problem, Dr Singh said that work on much talked about Shahpur Kandi Barrage will begin soon as Punjab Government has agreed to construct the stretch of canal for J&K. The project was delayed for years together by previous Governments which were Kashmir centric, he added.
He said many projects were already taken up in hand in Kathua –Doda Constituency including Bio Tech Park at Ghai, Kathua, Dreamland Park at Kathua, construction of 1140 toilet complexes in border belt of Hiranagar out of which 400 toilets have been completed and starting of e-Governance at district level.
Dr Singh appealed the people to take full advantage of welfare schemes launched by Prime Minister, Modi like Jan Dhan, Yojna, Mudra Yojna, Fasal Bhima Yojna as well host of other such schemes which is going to change the fate of the people.
In his address, MLA Kathua Rajiv Jasrotia said the construction of the bridges and other developmental projects would have not been possible had Dr Singh not taken personnal initiative in this regard. He demanded abandoned five kilometer stretch of Nagri road be also constructed immediately and announced that Nagri toll Plaza will start functioning soon.
Speaking on the occasion, DG BRO Lt. Gen. Suresh Sharma said that BRO was established in 1960 and it started construction of road network in Kashmir under Project Beacon.
In 56 years the BRO has constructed 51,000 km roads, 40000 bridges, 19 Airfields and 452 roads. The Project Samparak was started by BRO in 1975, he added.
The vote of thanks was proposed by CE Project Sampark, Brig Bhatacharya.
Senior leader Th. Ranjit Singh, District president, Prem Nath Dogra, BJYM National Executive Member Bharat Sharma, Divender Singh Wazir and others were present on the occasion.
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