Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: Over one lakh Individual Household Toilets (IHHTs) have been constructed in the State, since Prime Minister reviewed the flagship Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) – Gramin (G) programme on March 13th, 2018 in the four states of J&K, UP, Odisha and Bihar.
On Thursday, Chief Secretary, B B Vyas chaired a video conference with Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to review the district wise performance under the programme.
Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Secretary, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Mission Director SBM (G) and other officers participated in the meeting. Divisional Commissi-oner, Kashmir participated via video conferencing.
While appreciating the overall progress achieved in the last 15 days, Chief Secretary called upon the districts lagging behind to work in mission mode to complete the programme of national importance before the target date, set for each district.
Significant progress has been recorded in districts like Rajouri, Anantnag, Kupwara, Pulwama and Baramulla, wherein during the last 15 days, as many as 24000, 13145, 10872, 10,000 and 6553 IHHTs respectively have been constructed.
Geo-tagging of assets has also received impetus and from an average of 49% recorded on March 13th on the Management Information System (MIS), the average progress has jumped by 21%, reaching 70% as of today.
Chief Secretary directed the Deputy Commissioners of Anantnag, Srinagar and Ganderbal to give impetus to the construction of community toilets along the Shri Amarnathji Yatra route, so as to complete the task in the next 30 days i.e April end. Deputy Commissioners of Ganderbal and Anantnag informed that the land at various locations for the purpose has been identified and works are being allotted.
Chief Secretary also gave a slew of directions regarding ODF verification process, IMIS uploading, sustainability of SBM (G) assets in districts already declared ODF, hiring & training of Swachigarhis and conducting mass awareness programmes on sanitation, utilizing the services of radio, doordarshan and other print and electronic media.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary chaired a meeting with Commissioner/Secretary PDD, and MD JKSPDC to review the status of implementation of the action plan for dispatch of Solar Power units/material to the five districts of Kishtwar, Leh, Kargil, Bandipora and Kupwara under the electrification of 54 left out villages through off-grid mode.
This follows the meeting taken by the Union Cabinet Secretary on 1st of March, and subsequently by the Chief Secretary on 10th of March, wherein the action plan for implementation of the programme was finalised.
Out of the 18452 villages identified in the country for electrification in 2015, only 910 villages remain to be electrified including 70 in Jammu and Kashmir. These 70 remaining villages have been targeted for electrification by April 2018 including 54 through the off-grid mode.
It was informed that after the mandatory inspection of the Solar Power units, the consignment has been dispatched to the State through surface transport and will be reaching the designated places in couple of days; from where, these will be transported to the remote un-electrified villages by air sorties/surface transport, as per the action plan devised for the purpose.
Divisional and the District Administration have been directed to provide all necessary support to the Power Development Department in facilitating/coordinating the implementation of the entire project.
Follow our WhatsApp channel