Delay in holding urban, rural body polls has cost J&K dearly: Guv

Jamuu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today said that the prolonged delay in holding the elections for various rural and urban civic bodies in the state has caused it dearly in terms of developmental assistance.

The governor made the remark while seeking cooperation from the the elected representatives of all parties for moving towards normalcy and conducting elections to the panchayats and urban local bodies at the earliest.

"The prolonged delay in holding the urban and rural local self governing body elections has cost the state dearly in terms of the developmental assistance to it," he said.

The Governor made the observation while chairing the District Development Board meeting in Jammu to review the implementation of the ongoing developmental programmes and those planned to be taken up in the district during 2018-19.

He also emphasized that the focus of his administration was to provide a people friendly, corruption free and efficient public delivery systems.

Responding to the issues raised in the meeting, he said that his advisors would convene early meetings with the officers for immediate review and redressal of the issues pertaining to the various departments under their charge.

Taking note of the issues raised by the elected representatives, the Governor observed that the objective of his visit was to obtain the first hand feedback on the execution of all the major developmental works, assess the additional resource requirements and take early corrective actions.

Vohra asked his Advisor Khurshid Ganai to urgently examine the elected representatives' concerns on non-disbursement of pensions to the old-age people besides the widows and specially-abled persons.

He also asked him to look into the delays in initiation of works even after the allotment of tenders by the executing agencies.

The Governor directed the divisional and district administration to take urgent effective actions on each of the issues raised by the legislators, particularly those relating to the problems of corruption, encroachment of public properties and slackness in carrying out the developmental works.

He directed Jammu divisional commissioner to act as the nodal coordinating agency for resolving all the bottlenecks and in ensuring that various project works were not hampered due to blockades.

Taking a serious note of accentuating water scarcity in the district, the Governor directed the planning secretary to ensure that the project for augmenting water supply in Jammu by lifting water from Chenab was undertaken on priority under the next tranche of external funding.

He also ordered the release of an additional sum of Rs 50 crore for accelerating the pace of works and completing the incomplete projects in the district.

He directed Jammu district development commissioner Ramesh Kumar to urgently draw up an action plan for all works to be executed in a time-bound manner.