No officer should leave HQ without permission: Wani

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 21: Minister for R&B, Abdul Majeed Wani, has instructed the engineers not to leave their headquarters without permission of a competent authority warning stern action against the erring.
He asked the concerned to ensure that utilization certificates under all projects are submitted in time to get other projects, submitted to the Centre, cleared.
The Minister was reviewing the status of the projects taken up under Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) in Jammu division here at an officers meeting.
Minister of State for R&B and Home, Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, Commissioner Secretary, R&B, Tanvir Jehan, Chief Engineers of PMGSY and R&B Departments besides the engineers of PMGSY of Jammu division were present on the occasion.
Underlining need for proper planning, the Minister asked the officers to prepare and submit the DPRs of only those projects which have no land or any other dispute. He directed the officers to follow litigations filed by contractors in different courts so that work on affected projects is resumed at the earliest.
Exhorting upon engineers for timely completion of the projects, Majeed asked them to maintain inter departmental coordination in order to achieve the targets fixed for current fiscal.
The Minister asked engineers to take adequate measures for shifting of utilities hampering the progress of the projects and sort out issues with concerned agencies vigorously. He asked the engineers to conduct survey of hilly areas which have no road connectivity and come up with the proposals for construction of roads in those areas.
Sajjad exhorted upon the engineers to work with dedication and ensure that the benefit of the schemes are reached to all sections of the society, particularly living in rural and hilly areas.
Giving the details of the achievements, the Chief Engineers informed that 1520 habitations have been covered under phase III and IV of this flagship programme. Besides, Rs. 1001 crore have been spent on completion of 221 schemes out of 610 schemes approved by the Centre. Apart from constructing 3800 km road length, earth work of 800 km have also been completed so far, the meeting was told.
It was given out that under phase VIII, 11 works have been finalized out of 127 works for which tenders stands invited while 18 works are under allotment process. Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of 224 schemes indentified for providing connectivity to the inhabitations with 250 or more population are in progress while survey of 158 such schemes has been completed so far.
Regarding quality monitoring, it was given out that quality monitoring inspection of 108 works have been completed, out of 299 works completed so far.