SRINAGAR: Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy, along with Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today reviewed the progress of various administrative and developmental works in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through video conferencing.
Minister of State, PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh; Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar; BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Gyanesh Kumar, Additional Secretary, MHA; Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commissioner, Finance department; Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education; Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor, besides Administrative Secretaries of various departments and senior officers of MHA took part in the deliberations.
In the meeting, implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Prime Minister’s Development Package, progress on issues raised during the Outreach Programme carried out by the Union Council of Ministers in January 2020 and the issues related to the implementation of J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 were reviewed.
The Union Minister expressed satisfaction and appreciated the efforts of the UT administration in speeding up the execution of various projects under PMDP, CSSs and other development programmes.
While reviewing the Border Area Development Programme, the Union Minister desired that the infrastructural gaps in border villages should be filled up within next two years in order to ease the difficulties faced by the border residents.
The Union Minister also desired that action must be initiated in case of all the demands put forth by the public before the Union Ministers during the Outreach programme held by them in January, 2020 and the MHA be updated about the progress.
The Minister was informed that 17 projects under PMDP have been completed or substantially completed whereas work on 31 more projects is moving fast.
Under Health sector, it was informed that the work on AIIMS Samba has begun while the work on AIIMS Awantipora is likely to start from August, 2020. Moreover, MBBS course classes have already started in 4 newly established Medical Colleges at Anantnag, Baramulla, Rajouri and Kathua, while as in GMC Doda, the classes would begin from this year. The Government of India has also released 1st instalment of funds for two more Medical Colleges at Handwara and Udhampur.
A detailed presentation was also given on Special Initiative to ensure 100% coverage of eligible beneficiaries under Flagship Schemes being implemented in J&K UT. The efforts of the UT administration for the special drive to cover all eligible beneficiaries under 55 schemes of the Central government were lauded. The UT has ensured 100% coverage of beneficiaries under 32 schemes and was committed to achieving the universal coverage under other schemes of the Central Government as well.
It was informed that J&K being a leader in universalization of Health Insurance, over 11 lakh Golden Cards have been generated and 3.5 lakh families have at least one Ayushman Bharat Golden Card under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna. Efforts for coverage of students under 14 scholarship schemes for students and saturation of Kisan Credit Cards were also praised by the Union Minister.
The meeting was also informed that the UT has launched Kisan Pakhwada with the aim of doubling rural credit and saturation under KCC; besides enhancing agricultural productivity for small and marginal farmers through technological interventions. Efforts are on to ensure area-specific crop insurance for different crops and fruits, it was informed.
The Ministers of the Union Government also lauded the efforts of UT administration ineffective and result-oriented implementation of the Centrally Sponsored schemes under which Rs 6414 crore were spent in the UT during 2019-20.
The Lieutenant Governor informed the MHA that the UT administration is in the process of developing a web portal for comprehensive monitoring of Centrally Sponsored Schemes under implementation in J&K, which would be launched shortly. He assured the Union Minister that all the issues requiring attention would be sorted out on priority. He also briefed the Minister about the roadmap for accelerated recruitment and implementation of reservation rules in the UT.
On Outreach Programme held by Union Ministers in various Districts of the UT, it was given out that a total number of 1066 demands were made by the public during the Programme, out of which action has been initiated on 440 demands, whereas 626 such demands are under consideration of the UT Government, at various levels which would be expedite to take them forward.
