Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 25: As a part of a novel initiative, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has taken upon himself the responsibility of developing and upgrading the railway stations falling under his constituency.
During an interactive session with civil society representatives here to discuss utilisation of constituency fund by elected representatives and other related issues , Dr Jitendra Singh said, there is a lot much that an MP can exclusively do for the people of his constituency through the funds available from MP-LAD as well as various centrally sponsored schemes and working in close collaboration with civil society members helps in identifying such areas where funds may not be available from other sources and the MP can supplement the civil society efforts through his MP-LAD as well as other resources in his reach. The schemes available from Govt of India are in plenty but only require a deeper study and proper application, he added.
Similarly, Dr Jitendra Singh observed,there are certain categories of expenditure for which MP-LAD can be spared but not much is known about it, For example, he referred to health related category through which he had recently arranged the latest model of artificial limb for a disabled youth from Reasi in his constituency.
In this context, Dr. Jitendra Singh cited the example of the three Railway Stations of Kathua, Udhampur and Ramnagar falling in his Lok Sabha constituency, which are not known to be very major railway stations and therefore, the Railway Ministry parameters may not be able to spare the same amount of funds for these stations as for some of other major stations.
But, he said, a little effort to receive feedback and input from the common public made him realize that even though at a railway station like Kathua for example, the time interval of a train halt may not be very long, but people come from villages far and wide in advance to the Station and wait for hours together for the train to arrive without any shelter to protect themselves from hot weather or rain. This, he said, prompted him to come forward and take up the responsibility of constructing shelters and benches at these stations.
Elaborating further, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, he has already placed an amount of nearly Rs.35 lakh at the disposal of Railway Department for building 30 stainless steel benches and 44 stainless steel platforms at Kathua Railway Station, 50 stainless steel benches and 4 stainless steel platforms at Udhampur Station, and 6 RCC benches and 2 stainless steel platform shelters at the smaller railway station of Ramnagar respectively. If need be, he said he has offered to spare more amount to railway department for further upgrading of the facility at these railway stations.
Dr. Jitendra Singh observed that the most optimum utilization of an MP’s constituency fund can be accomplished by keeping in loop not only the local legislators but also the civil society and common people’s representatives so that the most unattended and unnoticed requirements of the society may be appropriately addressed.
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