Lt Governor conducts extensive tour of Kathua, reviews developmental scenario

Kathua: Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today conducted an extensive tour of Kathua and also chaired a meeting to review the developmental scenario in the District.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma; Director General Social Welfare Department, Rehana Batul ; MD SIDCO, Ravinder Kumar, SSP Kathua, Dr. Shailendar Mishra, Heads of Departments, Chief Engineers and other District Officers accompanied the Lt Governor.
During the meeting convened at the DC Office, the District Development Commissioner, O P Bhagat gave detailed profile of Kathua district and progress achieved so far under various Central Sponsored Schemes in the District.
The Lt Governor passed several directions for ensuring the timely completion of all the ongoing developmental projects to avoid any inconvenience to the general public.
For border area of Kathua district, the Lt Governor directed all the officers of executing agencies to expedite the pace of border area projects especially in Power, PHE & PWD sector, besides construction of individual and community bunkers. He also directed the concerned officers to pace up the augmentation projects in Education, Health and Sports sector so that desired facilities could be delivered to the border dwellers.
Earlier, the Lt Governor reviewed the development plan of SIDCO Industrial Complex at Ghatti in Kathua and inquired about the facilities being provided to the entrepreneurs. He directed the officers to make provision for 24X7 power supply to the industrial units, besides dedicated Water Supply Schemes, keeping in mind the future demands of the industrial units.
He also stressed for promoting Food Processing and Packaging Industry in the area. He directed the officers to identify land in Kathua to establish Solid Waste Management Plant which would be utilized by the industries as well as Local bodies.
The Lt Governor also took stock of progress of Industrial BioTech Park at Ghatti and Highway Village on NH 44 near Logate Morh in Kathua.
Project Director NHAI Jammu, Ajay Kumar Rajak briefed the Lt Governor about proposed flyovers and facilities to be added to the National Highway. Up gradation of bridges, addition of service roads, extension of old service roads and junction improvements were also proposed by the Project Director before the Lt Governor.
He directed the Project Director to include the Trauma Centre facility in Highway Village project besides planning entry and exit points in the Highway village.
During the tour, the Lt Governor also visited the Associated Hospital Kathua and inaugurated Emergency OT and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital. He directed the health functionaries to ensure round the clock medicare facilities with upgraded health infrastructure to provide relief to the patients.
Later, the Lt Governor also interacted with various delegations including BDC Chairpersons, members of Urban Local Bodies and PRIs of Kathua district. Meanwhile, a delegation of female Sarpanches also called on the Lt Governor and apprised him about their concerning issues.
During the interaction, the Lt Governor observed that the basic amenities like water, electricity and roads will be provided to every household in far flung and border areas of Kathua district and assured the representatives of PRIs and Urban Local Bodies that there would be no loss in terms of jobs and land due to abrogation of Article 370.
The Lt Governor also stated that, Amnesty Scheme for electricity consumers with no penalty and no interest on their billed amount along-with installment facility has been announced so that maximum benefit could be given to the consumers of UT of Jammu & Kashmir, besides Smart metering and prepaid use of electricity to give extra facility to the consumers.
Re-iterating the Government’s commitment for the implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment, the Lt Governor said that it would not only consolidate the governance at local level but would also pace up the development works. Governance at local level can only be strengthened with the participation and cooperation of elected representatives, he added, saying that the ULBs and PRIs would become self-reliant bodies competent to decide their priorities.
He advised the elected representatives of PRIs and Urban Local Bodies to preserve land in their respective area as it is a scarce commodity and is essential for any development project. After having sufficient land, they can prioritize their projects accordingly, especially the master plan of Kathua and other towns of the district.