Srinagar
Following up on his priority objective to speed up implementation of developmental schemes, Governor NN Vohra began his district tour-cum-public outreach programme with a visit to Budgam on Monday.

He had a fairly extensive interaction with MLAs, MLCs, former legislators and ministers, and representatives of various political parties in the district, following which he chaired a meeting of district, divisional and state-level officials to review the implementation of developmental schemes in the district. The Governor was accompanied by BB Vyas, Adviser to Governor; Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Planning, Development and Monitoring Department; and Baseer Khan, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.

Legislators Omar Abdullah, Hakim Yasin, Javed Mustafa Mir, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Agha Syed Ruhullah, Saif ud din Bhat, Ali Mohammad Dar, Agha Syed Mahmood Mosavi, former legislators Abdul Rahim Rather and Shafi Wani, and leaders of various political parties participated in the Governor’s meeting with political leaders.

The legislators and political representatives highlighted their concerns regarding the various challenges and difficulties being faced by people, particularly those relating to health, education, power, road connectivity, water supply sanitation, etc. They thanked the Governor for visiting Budgam to review the progress of works on the ground and expressed hope that all pending projects would be taken up for timely execution and the development of the state would be speeded up.

Later, the Governor chaired a meeting of the state, divisional and district-level officials in which he comprehensively reviewed developmental activities under execution by various departments in Budgam, particularly the sectoral, physical and financial achievements registered under the district plan and as well as the status of major works. Syed Sehrish Asgar, Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, made a PowerPoint presentation giving an overview of the developmental scenario of the district and highlighted the major achievements recorded during the previous financial year as well as the targets and activities earmarked for the current year.

The Governor approved additional funds of Rs 5 crore, including Rs 1 crore for the Deputy Commissioner’s discretionary utilisation, to execute some small but important works, to be completed within the next 90 days. He directed the Deputy Commissioner to rationalise the land acquisition, shifting of utilities and other processes for the speedy completion of all pending projects.

While reviewing the road connectivity targets achieved under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the Governor directed the chief engineer to set up district-wise targets for completion of all projects under phase IX of the scheme. He also directed that a performance audit of all water filtration plants should be done and dysfunctional filtration plants be replaced on a time-bound basis.