MT News Service
Udhampur, October 3:
DDC Member from Panchari Moungri, Jasvir Singh, today said that public projects in rural areas are facing serious challenges even after a huge budget allocation from the Union and UT government as many projects yet to be completed even after many deadline extensions.
In a statement issued to mercury times, while addressing a press conference here today, he said that it is very much important to create a strong supervising mechanism to bring transparency in the system and to complete public welfare projects on time with quality standards. He said that Govt has set the target to provide clean drinking water to every household under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) by 2024 but very unfortunately the speed of work on JJM projects is very poor and needs immediate attention to reach the destination. He said that the work of all major projects of construction of buildings in various educational institutions is under stress as the same needs immediate attention from the School Education and Public Works department (PWD) as work is under stagnation after merging the technical wing of the education department into PW(R&B) Works Department. Due to the shortage of technical staff the completion of ongoing works will suffer badly. Public suffers a lot as the health buildings of Ladda, Damnote, Lander, Moungri and Badhota are yet to be completed even after many years of starting projects.
He thanked the govt for funds allocation for various developmental projects and stressed their timely completion to avoid the increase in input cost. He stressed on ensuring the durability of blacktopping and maintenance of road surface and drainage by the concerned contractors in all projects in his area as well as in Udhampur. He appealed to the UT administration to fix the answerability , take strict actions against the violators of government guidelines, and given deadlines of projects. He thanked the government for investing in strengthening rural connectivity, but along with the same, he stressed that modern techniques should be used in making roads in hilly areas for long durability and stability. Talking about the tourism sector he said that this field is yet to be explored as present buildings of tourism including Kalsote and Sankri have received no attention from the department, rural areas are waiting for investment in the tourism sector and ongoing projects need attention which includes tourist huts Panchari. While explaining the ground position he told that there is huge shortage of staff in maximum departments and availability of technical staff is at minimum. He adds that at the same time a big number of younger generation is waiting for opportunities and many are getting over aged due to the lack of an upgraded recruitment policy. He also appealed to UT administration to pay special attention to Education sector as rural areas are struggling for quality education as well as for availability of adequate number of teaching staff.
