Sanjeev K. Sharma
JAMMU, Nov. 9: As the tenure of elected body of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has hardly a year left, the lane and drain works has not been completely done in Ward number 59 and only 50 per cent of street lights were provided to the Ward against its total requirement while some of the installed street lights have now turned faulty.
This was informed by Ashok Singh Manhas, Ward number 59 Councillor who initially won the Urban Local Body election as an Independent candidate but later on joined BJP and this is his second term as a Councillor from the same Ward.
“Due to paucity of funds, work of lanes and drains has not been fully completed in my Ward as we only did 70 per cent of it but the roads there are well repaired while I only got 50 per cent street lights of the total requirement in my Ward and many of these are now in non-functional state,” Manhas said during an interaction with the Excelsior.
He also claimed that so far no solution has been reached for the problem of stray animals especially dogs as JMC lifts these animals and again leaves them at the same place after performing sterility on them.
Manhas informed that his Ward includes areas of Paloura Top, Mandlik Nagar Phase I & II, Pandoka, Tara Vihar, Khajuria Mohalla, JK Colony, Mohalla Bhaktan, Ambedkar Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Paloura Top Phase I, II, III and few other small areas.
On water and power supply in the Ward, he informed that power supply these days is good but the water is supplied on alternate days as infrastructure like supply motors, pipes etc are very old and need replacement.
“Recently installed smart meters in my Ward are giving hefty bills thereby triggering public resentment but the actual need is to make the public aware on judicious use of electricity,” the Councillor said.
He further said that fogging is being done in the Ward to prevent breeding of mosquitoes in order to safeguard the public from dengue fever which has now spread in the city like an epidemic.
“We send dengue positive reports to the anti-Malaria section and they in turn send their team for fogging the affected area,” Manhas maintained adding that the Ward also has a pond for which he is in continuous efforts to develop the water body properly.
“Rs. 25 lakh has been already spent on boundary around the pond with grill work while another tender of Rs. 1.38 crore under a scheme of Union government is under-process for further improving the pond,” he further said.
The JMC Councillor also said that there are four parks in the Ward all of which are properly developed with paths, plantation of trees and plants etc.
He further said that the Ward has no playground for the children.
“There is an open air gym at the park in Bua Dati temple while other parks in the Ward are at Paloura Top, Mandlik Nagar and in JDA colony,” he continued adding that the Ward also has a public toilet and a Ward office besides a Garbage Transfer Plant to process the garbage.
The Councillor said though his Ward has six Nallahs but there was no incident of any flood as these Nallahs were properly constructed under his supervision during his earlier tenure.
He also said that garbage disposal problem in the Ward has now been solved by the autos moving from door-to-door to collect the garbage.
“There are also drug peddlers and addicts in the Ward and we often raise the issue in police-public meetings,” he said.
Manhas informed that during COVID-19 pandemic triggered lockdown he remained busy in helping the needy people in his Ward and also distributed ration among them apart from motivating them for COVID-19 vaccinations.
“As far as Ayushman Cards are concerned, maximum of my Ward resident have got them by now and similar is the case for Voter and Aadhar Cards but still we organize camps for making these cards for the left over public,” he said.
Manhas said that the new pension rule to benefit exclusively the elders, widows and physically challenged persons from Below Poverty Line is creating problems but the Social Justice Committee of JMC is taking the issue with government.
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