Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 5: The Action Plans of Poonch Development Authority and Verinag Development Authority for the financial year 2012-13 were approved in two separate Governing Body meetings held here today.
The meetings were chaired by the Minister for Tourism & Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora, Minister of State for Tourism, Nasir Aslam Wani, MLAs Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Aijaz Jan, Commissioner/Secretary Tourism, Atal Dulloo, District Development Commissioner, Poonch Ajay Kumar Sahu, District Development Commissioner, Anantnag Farooq Shah, Directors Tourism, Jammu/Kashmir, R.S. Mehta, Talat Parvez, Special Secretary Planning, M.H.Malik, Chief Executive Officer, Poonch Development Authority (PDA), Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Chief Executive Officer, Verinag Development Authority Nazir Ahmad Thakur were also present in the meetings.
While reviewing the functioning of Poonch Development Authority, the Minister stressed for completion of all on-going projects in a time bound manner. He specifically directed the concerned for taking care of quality and aesthetic character of tourism infrastructure for motivating the guests of national and international level to visit the State’s tourist circuits. He directed for developing the durable infrastructure according to the needs of the tourists within the approved outlay. He said authority must be vibrant in showcasing the cultural heritage of the specific areas as well as State.
The Minister also implied for exploring the tourism potential in the new areas. He said Poonch has been bestowed with natural beauty like Kashmir valley and all out efforts should be made to develop new tourist circuits for the visitors so that the tourists could be diverted from Kashmir Valley via Mughal road. After thorough deliberations the meeting approved an outlay of Rs 1.30 crore for the authority for 2012-13 for giving fillip to the steps already initiated by the authority.
The Chief Executive Officer, PDA gave detailed account of activities undertaken by the authorities and targets for the current year. He said the authority has incurred full allocation on different projects during the previous year.
In a separate meeting, the Governing Body reviewed the working of Verinag Development Authority and discussed the proposed action plan for the year 2012-13 in detail.
The Minister directed the Chief Executive Officer to take into confidence the local MLAs while executing various development works. He directed for adhering to the environment concerns while executing the infrastructural development in the area. He stressed on bringing new areas under the ambit of tourist circuits to prolong the stay of tourists in this part of the Valley.
The Chief Executive Officer, Verinag Development Authority briefed the meeting about the activities of the organization and said that the draft of Master Plan has been finalized and sent to the Town Planning Organization, Kashmir for approval.
The Committee approved the current year’s Action Plan to the tune of Rs 2.30 crore for the Verinag Development Authority.
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