Secretary Tourism reviews functioning of departments in Kupwara

Kupwara, Jun 24: Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Sarmad Hafeez, Thursday exhorted upon officers and field functionaries to be proactive in resolving public issues maintaining that LG administration is determined towards providing more responsive, accountable and transparent governance to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Secretary, who is also Mentor Secretary for Kupwara district, was addressing a review meeting here in the district.
Chairman, District Development Council (DDC), Kupwara, Irfan Sultan Panditpuri; Vice Chairman DDC, Kupwara, Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir, Deputy Commissioner, Kupwara, Imam Din, Additional District Development Commissioner, Nazir Ahmad Lone and other senior officers were present at the occasion.
Secretary asked the officers to bridge gap between the public and the departments by disseminating information regarding citizens’ charter and services being available for them. He asked for establishment of a complaint box and proper Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) with dedicated help line numbers in every office to facilitate people register their issues and concerns for redressal.
He had a detailed review of developmental activities being carried out in the district during current financial year besides assessing the progress achieved in the last fiscal on this account.
While reviewing health sector, Secretary said that despite decline in positive cases we cannot allow to lower the guard for Covid containment and need to continue strict adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour and other SOPs. He was informed that a fine of Rs.17 lakh has been realized from the violators of Covid guidelines in the district.
Regarding functioning of CAPD, Secretary was informed that sufficient stock of ration and other essential commodities is available in the district including border areas of Karnah, Keran and Machil.
Secretary, while taking stock of education sector, was informed that online classes are being conducted besides community classes have also been started especially in the areas where there is unavailability of internet facility.
Secretary also reviewed the working of departments of Rural Development and PHE and had feedback from SDMs of Karnah and Sogam in this regard.
DDC Chairman highlighted the developmental issues of the district and stressed for augmentation of water supply schemes especially in Langate.
Earlier, Deputy Commissioner informed that the current financial year’s CAPEX budget ceiling is about Rs.779.60 crore, which included Rs.11020 lakh under Rural Development, Rs. 1021 lakh under Jal Shakti, Rs.3565 lakh under Transport, Rs. 6762 lakh under Social Welfare and Rs.45269 lakh under General Services besides Rs.10321 lakh under Area Development Fund. HE also informed that 9656 development works have been taken up for execution during 2020-21, of which, 4849 have been completed up to March end this year.
Regarding financial achievements of the last fiscal, it was informed that about Rs.16959 lakh were expended constituting 94 percent of the available budget of Rs.18022 lakh.