Over Rs 1,000 cr released to flood victims under PMDP

The Jammu and Kashmir government today said that out of Rs 1,200 crore sanctioned under the Prime Minister Development Package for the 2014 flood victims Rs 1,024.07 crore has been released to the affected people.
"An amount of Rs 1,200 crore has been sanctioned under PMDP 2015 for providing assistance to beneficiaries of the houses affected by September-2014 floods. So far, an amount of Rs 1024.07 crore has been released on this account," Minister for Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Basharat Ahmed Bukharito the Legislative assembly today.
He was replying to the discussion on Demand for Grants of Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Department.

For facilitating settlement process and effective online platform for grievance readressal, the Minister informed that the Department is making all efforts for e-profiling the areas of 22 districts, 67 sub-divisions, 217 territorial tehsils, 558 niabats and 1,553 patwar halqas and 6,959 Villages.
Regarding the process for acquisition of land, he said the department has put in place a strong monitoring mechanism for time bound completion of the acquisition proceedings.
He said special attention is being paid in particular to various projects like Railways, National Highway, etc.

The Minister said during the current year entire stretch of the National Highway between Jammu and Udhampur has almost been made free from bottlenecks due to timely intervention of the administrative department.

Besides, nearly 99 per cent of the land has been acquired and corridor made available between Srinagar and Qazigund to the executing agencies, he said.
He said the most critical issues regarding the portion of National Highway in Banihal area has also been resolved and almost 100 per cent land has been made available to the executing agency.
"Nearly 3,750 acres of proprietary/state land has been acquired/transferred to various government Departments/ agencies for different public purposes during last one year," Bukhari said.
The Minister informed the house that a policy regarding change of the land use has been notified with a view to streamlining the procedure regarding change of land use, till a comprehensive Housing Policy is formulated.

Besides, for preparing a policy regarding optimal utilization of the land resources through appropriate land use, planning and management, a high level committee has been constituted to be followed by Statutory Land Use and Planning Board.
The Minister informed the House that a separate new department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction has been created.
He said the department comprises Emergency Relief Organization, Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation, Management of Kashmiri Migrants and will also cater to issues pertaining to Displaced Persons and people affected due to firing on LoC and International Borders.
"Rehabilitation and re-settlement policy has been framed for whole of the state with regard to disasters, natural calamities and commissioning of various projects," he said.

Later, the House passed the grants of Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Hajj and Auqaf, for the year 2017-18, which were moved by the Minister, amounting to Rs 2,38,450.24 lakhs with voice vote.