House panel meets top civil admin officials

SRINAGAR: On the second day of its four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs on Thursday held a meeting with top civil administration to discuss developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in the Union Territory.

The panel, comprising of 28 MPs, is headed by senior Congress leader Anand Sharma.

The officials said that the members were told about the steps taken in the past few years for democratic decentralisation, the meeting was informed about the conduct of elections for District Development Councils and Block Development Councils thus strengthening the grassroot level democracy in the UT.

“The meeting was told that the region has now three-tier democratic set up in place and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies have been further empowered. Besides, public outreach programmes Back to Village, Jan Abhiyan, My Town My Pride etc were conducted across J&K.

With respect to the power scenario in J&K, the panel was informed that power generation projects have been fast-paced and 2500 MW would be added by the year 2025,” the spokesperson said.

The committee was informed about the road connectivity, water supply and was briefed about the status of schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission and achievement of 100 per cent piped water supply to all rural schools and Anganwadi Centres in 18 districts of the UT, besides briefing them on the Tourism and Industries as priority sectors and the issues of Industrial Development, Tourism sector, employment of youth and women empowerment, sports activities, the spokesperson said.

The members also discussed resettlement of Kashmiri Migrants in Kashmir, the spokesperson added.

The horticulturists and agriculturists representatives put forth their suggestions before the panel members who assured that their recommendations would be considered suitably. The panel also visited CRPF camp of 132 battalion housed at Nedous Hotel Maulana Azad Road, Srinagar. The members interacted with the officers and jawans at the camp.