* Asks JK Minerals to broaden area of activity
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 12: Advisor to Lt. Governor, KK Sharma today called for speeding up pace of various developmental works undertaken by the Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC).
Chairing 96th Board of Directors Meeting of JKPCC here today, the Advisor called for improving the financial health of the corporation to make it a profit driven utility of Jammu and Kashmir.
Financial Commissioner Finance Arun Kumar Mehta; Commissioner Secretary Roads & Building (R&B), Khurshid Ahmad Shah; Director General Planning Sahibzada Bilal Chief Engineers Jammu, Kashmir, Desh Raj Bhagat, Sami Arif, Executive Director JKPCC, N D Khawaja and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
The Advisor asked JKPCC authorities to strike a judicious balance between the income and expenditure by taking necessary corrective measures for minimising the administrative expenses and increasing income. He said instead of looking towards the Government for contracts, the Corporation must join various competitive biddings for expanding the ambit of its functioning so that it becomes one of the leading construction agencies of the UT besides increasing its quantum of revenue.
Underlining the need for ensuring the usage of quality material in the works, the Advisor said the quality of works and timely completion of projects should be the benchmark of the Corporation. He said the delay in completion of works is putting an unnecessary financial burden on the exchequer of the Corporation and called for arresting this tendency.
Later, the Advisor also chaired 173rd BoD meeting of Jammu and Kashmir Minerals Limited which was attended by Financial Commissioner Finance Arun Mehta, Commissioner Secretary Industries MK Dwivedi, Director General Planning Sahibzada Bilal, Director Geology and Mining Vikas Sharma, Managing Director JK Minerals Vikram Gupta and other senior officers.
The Advisor while calling for broadening the activities of JK Minerals said that it can emerge as one of the most profit making corporations besides also providing the quality material to the different Government departments for execution of their projects. He said that Jammu and Kashmir has a vast wealth of minerals and the onus lies on the corporation for ensuring its proper extraction and marketing.
The Advisor was also briefed about the activities being undertaken by the corporation in its functional projects/mines which includes sapphire mines, gypsum mines at Assar and Ramban, coal mines at Kalakot Rajouri and Reasi and lime stone quarry at Pulwama.
The meeting was also informed about various other activities relation to undertaking Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities and Human Resource issues of the corporation.