Monitor News Bureau
Jammu, Nov 22: Advisor to Governor, Kewal Kumar Sharma Thursday reviewed the progress under Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) sectors in a meeting here at Civil Secretariat.
The Advisor had a detailed review on the overall functioning of the PHE and I&FC department and assessed the drinking water scenario in J&K, revenue realization, status of major projects, languishing projects and several other ongoing projects and schemes under different heads. He also reviewed the current status of River Tawi Barrage Project.
On the occasion, Sharma enquired about the implementation of schemes for covering the water deficit across the state and asked for preparing a timeline for their completion. He instructed the concerned to make a review of every scheme and prepare a bar chart for the same. He said that the Engineering department is the backbone of PHE and directed the Chief Engineers to review the workload to ensure proper quality of water.
While reviewing the drinking water scenario in the state, he was informed that the water deficit of Jammu is 17.74 MGD (Urban) and 25.48 MGD (Rural) , Kashmir is 5.00 MGD (Urban) and 10.00 MGD (Rural) and in Ladakh, the deficit is 0.46 MGD (Urban) and 1.67 MGD (Rural), making it a total deficit of 60.35 MGD across the state.
The Advisor was also informed about the status of major programmes of PHE sectors including National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), Rural Water Supply Schemes funded by NABARD, Urban Schemes funded under LIC loan assistance and languishing projects funded by JKIDFC.
It was given out that under NRDWP, a flagship programme funded by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, GOI on 90:10 basis, a total of 9292 habitations out of the rural population of 15958 habitations are getting safe drinking water at 40 LPCD and 6666 habitations are partially covered with the varying service level. The chair was also informed about the Physical and financial target achievements under NRDWP, LIC and NABARD.
About languishing projects funded by JKIDFC, it was informed that a total of 276 schemes were approved in Jammu and 283 in Kashmir. The Advisor said that creative thinking and detailed analysis needs to be done for completion of languishing projects.
He also enquired about the status of major projects including Water Supply Scheme (WSS) for Pilgrim Town Katra from Dhansar Nallah (costing Rs 56.05 crore), Water Supply to AIIMS, Vijaypur (costing Rs 8.95 crore), Water Supply to AIIMS, Awantipora costing Rs 10.84 crore), drinking water facilities to the Central University Jammu (costing Rs 11.42 crore) , Water Supply Scheme Sopore, Tangnar and Yaripora Town.
The meeting was briefed about the status of Mega Projects under I&FC sector including Shahpur Kandi Barrage costing Rs 3200 crore, UJH Barrage – Multipurpose project costing Rs 4750 crore, Comprehensive Flood Management of River Jhelum Phase I ( Rs 399.29 crore) and Phase II (Rs 1684.60 crore) besides several other programmes under implementation including Long Term Irrigation Fund(LTIF), Pradhan Mantri Krishi SinchaiYojna (PMKSY) , Flood Management Programme (FMP) ,NABARD funded I&FC schemes and dredging work.
While reviewing the status of River Tawi Barrage Project, the chair was informed that the expenditure on the said project till date is Rs 58.18 crore out of the allotted fund of Rs 69.70 crore with 86 % of work executed till March 2018. The Advisor asked the concerned departments and executing agencies to work in a coordinated manner to efficiently execute the works.
The Advisor stressed on preparing a comprehensive plan for augmentation of water supply across the state besides setting the time line for covering of the partially covered habitation. He further asked for upgrading the technology used in functioning of tube wells and labs and also enquired about the standard of WSS and quality control mechanism.
At the outset, Secretary, PHE and I&FC, Farooq Ahmad Shah gave a detailed presentation on the overall scenario of PHE and I&FC sectors.
He briefed the chair about the role assigned to the designated functionaries. He said that the department is working with the vision to provide safe and adequate potable drinking water to each and every household through development and management of water resources on sustainable basis besides providing assured irrigation water to the farmer community and taking flood protection measures to protect the life and property of the people of the state
Issues pertaining to wages for Need-based/Seasonal labours, maintenance of WSS and many alike were also discussed during the meeting.
The meeting was attended by Special Secretary, PHE, I&FC, Majid Drabu, Director General, Finance, PHE, I&FC, Mohammad Yaqoob Itoo, Additional Secretary PHE, I&FC, Des Raj Bhagat, Chief Engineers, Ashok Gandotra, R K Gandotra, Vinod Gupta, Abdul Wahid besides SEs, Exens and other concerned officers.
