Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Oct 13: Minister for CA&PD & Tribal affairs Ch. Zulfkar Ali chaired an officers meeting to review the progress of various sectors under district annual plan and Centrally sponsored schemes here today.
District Development Commissioner, Ramesh Kumar, presented an overview of functioning and progress of various departments through Power Point Presentation.
The Minister instructed the concerned officers to fix targets within the available resources for execution of works to get maximum output from various state and centrally sponsored schemes. He asked the officers to ensure that development works are not hampered for issues like clearance of forest land and court cases. He directed them to take up such issues on priority basis so that expeditious execution of development works is ensured.
Responding to demand of MLA Hiranagar, Kuldeep Raj, the Minister instructed PWD to improve the condition of Kootha – Saida road on priority so that traffic movement is resumed in the area at the earliest.
The Minister announced Rs. 4 crore for construction of an indoor stadium in the district to give impetus to sports activities in the area. He asked the concerned authorities for identification of land. He also announced Rs. 50 lakh for installation of transformers at tribal localities. He asked all the departments to pay focused attention on relief and rehabilitation measures being taken up for flood affected people.
Responding to problem of poor ration supply in the district raised by MLA, Rajeev Jasrotia, the Minister instructed the officers of CA&PD Department to maintain a uniform scale of ration in urban and rural areas besides making it mandatory to display the status of ration outside the ration depot. He asked for constitution of a committee under the supervision of DDC Kathua to look into mismanagement in ration distribution and ration allocation.
Meanwhile, the Minister informed that if 100 percent enrollment is done in the district under AADHAR then from December 1, Kathua will become eligible for being Pilot District for implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Later, the Minister inspected the Gujjar and Bakerwal Hostel and interacted with the children and enquired from them about the quality and status of diet, uniform, books and sports facilities. He instructed the warden to look into the problems of hostel inmates and take every possible step to mitigate the same within shortest possible time. He further asked the DDC to prepare a requirement chart along with the menu on priority basis and inform the concerned officers that the diet charges have been revised from Rs 50 to Rs 100 per day for these children.