‘Accord due courtesy to representatives of democratic bodies’
Mentor Secys to undertake 7 days tour in a month
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 12: In order to mitigate the sufferings of the people particularly in the far-off and remote areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Secretary has directed all the Administrative Secretaries to maintain effective communication channel with the Deputy Commissioners of all the 20 districts so that infrastructure damaged due to massive snowfall and rains is restored in a time bound manner.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that the damages due to massive snowfall and rains in the length and breadth of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were discussed in a recent meeting of Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta with all the Administrative Secretaries and accordingly the Chief Secretary directed them to maintain an effective communication channel with respective Deputy Commissioners in this regard.
“This is imperative so that all the issues impeding the restoration of damaged infrastructure are resolved timely and difficulties of the people are removed as promptly as possible”, sources said quoting the directions of the Chief Secretary.
The Administrative Secretaries were informed that during this winter season, measures have been taken to reduce electricity outages by ensuring replacement of damaged machinery within 8 to 24 hours. “The Administrative Secretaries should ensure that this timeline is ensured by the Power Development Department as any delay during the extreme weather condition amounts to putting the people particularly of the snow-bound areas to immense difficulties”, sources further said quoting the directions of Chief Secretary.
They have also been asked to regularly visit their districts and review developmental parameters and achievements with a special focus on provisions for reliable electricity and water supply during the ongoing winter season.
“The Administrative Secretaries have further been asked to undertake 7 days of touring in a month as per the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and furnish report about the outcome of such visits to the General Administration Department for appraisal at the highest level in the Government”, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention here that few days back directions were issued for presence of Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) at the commencement of meetings undertaken by the Mentor Secretaries so as to address issues related to Police Organization.
“The mechanism of appointing Mentor Secretaries of the district is aimed to ensure timely removal of bottlenecks in the developmental works and extension of benefits of welfare schemes to the people. Further, the Mentor Secretaries of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region and Budgam, Baramulla and Bandipora in Kashmir have been made Prabhari Officers for obtaining independent feed-back on the developmental works being undertaken under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) so that developmental profile of the border areas is transformed”, sources said.
In the meeting, the conduct of Government functionaries towards the representatives of all the three-tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and other public representatives also came up for discussion in the light of certain representations made to the Lieutenant Governor in this regard.
“Accordingly, the Chief Secretary has reiterated that the representatives of the democratic institutions must be accorded due courtesy by the Government functionaries”, sources said, adding “he has also directed the Mentor Secretaries to sensitize the Deputy Commissioners in this regard”.
As the Government employees often go on strike without any prior notice and consultation with the respective departments, the Chief Secretary has taken serious note of it and accordingly he has directed the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments to undertake appropriate employee engagements and grievance redressal to prevent such unwarranted strikes.
“During tours of the districts allotted to them the Administrative Secretaries should also look into the grievances of the employees so that situation of strikes can be avoided and the departmental work doesn’t suffer”, sources said quoting the directions of the Chief Secretary.
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