Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Oct 29: Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam today directed officials to prioritize for completion languishing projects of the district and sanction only those projects which have money behind them besides gear up men and machinery for early completion of these projects.
In this regard, the Chief Secretary chaired a meeting with Head of the Departments, District/Sectoral officers including engineering wing officials at Kathua to review the implementation of the major initiative launched by the Government to complete languishing infrastructure projects across the district in which Principal Secretary Finance, Navin Choudhary, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, DC Kathua, Rohit Khajuria, DC Samba, Sushma Chauhan and SSP Kathua, Shridhar Patil were also present.
DC Kathua briefed the meeting that a total of 19 projects were pending in Kathua district for which an amount of Rs. 16.28 crore has been projected. He further stated that these projects belong to PWD(R&B), PHE, Education, Health and EM & RE sector.
Chief Secretary asked PHE Department to focus on drinking water schemes, so that potable water is made available in every village of the district and the district achieves 100% drinking water coverage.
In PWD(R&B) sector, Chief Secretary was informed that a total of 6 bridges were completed in Kathua district and no bridge is under construction. 80 roads which were pending since long in Kathua were also identified and an amount of Rs. 150 crore is projected for their completion. Demand for expansion of a single lane bridge in Hiranagar town was also flagged by the DC as the expansion work was languishing for past few years.
Chief Secretary immediately took notice of the problem and directed the concerned officer to complete the expansion work after taking proper sanction.
He also accorded sanction to execute construction of 4 rooms in Govt. High School, Doula costing Rs. 14 lakh. Construction of PHC at Karanwara at the cost of Rs. 59 lakh, receiving station at Lahri, Billawar with an amount of Rs. 1 crore and construction of transformer repair workshop at Phinter, Billawar with an estimated cost of Rs. 70 lakh were other languishing projects which were accorded immediate sanction by the Chief Secretary.
Construction of roads under CRF, houses under PMAY(G), Labor liability under MGNREGA, utility shifting estimation and launching of ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme were also discussed threadbare by the Chief Secretary.
Principal Secretary Finance, Navin Choudhary passed directions that work amounting to Rs. 50 lakh and above should first be accorded technical sanction as well as administrative approval before their execution. DC should regularly monitor the status of all the languishing projects and flagship programs. He added that an amount of Rs. 60 lakh for the languishing projects of PHE was sanctioned to provide potable water to each and every house of the district.
Earlier, they visited Lakhanpur toll plaza to review the working of Excise and Commercial Sale Tax Department. The CS also took note of frequent traffic jam at Lakhanpur and directed the concerned to regulate the traffic.
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