Need for holistic development of Srinagar: Lt Governor

Srinagar, Sep 8: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a review meeting of Srinagar District and Srinagar Municipal Corporation, at SKICC Thursday.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor reviewed various developmental works besides implementation and progress of the schemes being executed by District administration and Municipal Corporation.
Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz and SMC Commissioner, Athar Amir Khan gave a detailed briefing to the chair on the status of various projects and schemes and other initiatives of District Administration & SMC, respectively.
Observing that Srinagar city is visited by people from across the country and abroad, the Lt Governor stressed upon the need for holistic development of the city and public amenities. He said the focus should not be limited to enhancing the aesthetics but making the infrastructure more user friendly and utilitarian.
The Lt Governor advised officials for making efforts to turn Srinagar Municipal Corporation into a sustainable entity and ensuring that the public service delivery processes are smooth and institutionalized across the city. “There is a need to start a campaign for revenue generation to further expand and enhance the quality of public services being delivered by SMC”, he said.
Commissioner, SMC also apprised the chair about the status of progress achieved in the projects being executed under Srinagar Smart City Ltd.
Earlier, the Lt Governor e-inaugurated 18 development projects worth Rs 65.15 cr of District Srinagar and laid foundation stone of Animal Birth Control & Anti rabies Vaccination Centre, Chattarhama.
The Lt Governor also sought the details of disbursement of benefits to eligible beneficiaries under different public welfare and Social Security schemes by the concerned departments. He issued explicit directions to officials for saturating the coverage under welfare schemes. He further instructed the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar for conducting extensive IEC activities for coverage of left out beneficiaries.
Reviewing the status of different schemes of the Agriculture sector, the Lt Governor instructed the concerned officials to ensure the benefits of all the UT and central government schemes reach the eligible beneficiaries.
The Lt Governor also took stock of the status of daily milk production and processing being done in Srinagar, besides the efforts made by the concerned department towards tackling the Lumpy Skin disease in cattle. It was informed that only 38 cases have been reported in 18 days and vaccination of the cattle is going on with alacrity.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the functioning of different departments in the district including, Jal Shakti, Power Development, School Education, Revenue, Industries & Commerce, KVIB, KVIC and sought the details of the progress achieved from the concerned officers.
During the review of various citizen centric services, it was informed that appropriate action will be taken against officials responsible for causing unwarranted delays in providing public services.
Directions were issued for integrating all citizen centric services with the Integrated Command and Control Centre.
Enquiring about the Jhelum Riverfront development, the Lt Governor was apprised that two components of the project would be completed this year. The Lt Governor called for developing water based local economy and beautification of water bodies and areas around them.
Timelines were given for the completion of various infrastructure projects and directions were also issued to achieve greater progress this year in terms of completion of projects than the last year.
Later, the Lt Governor also met public delegations and listened to their issues and demands. He received the memoranda of demands from different groups of public delegations and assured appropriate redressal of their issues on merit.
Junaid Azim Mattu, Mayor SMC; Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department; Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, DIG, CKR; SSP Srinagar, besides concerned officers of line departments and executing agencies were present in the meeting.