70th Republic celebrated across Bandipora district

 

 BANDIPORA, JANUARY 26: In connection with the celebration of 70th Republic-Day, functions were held across Bandipora district at District, Sub District and Tehsil level with great enthusiasm and patriotic fervor on Saturday.

          The main function was held at SK Stadium Bandipora where Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary unfurled the national flag and took salute at the march past present by the contingents of JK Police, JKAP, BSF, CRPF, NCC Cadets and students of various schools.

          Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the DC highlighted the importance of the Day and also presented the detailed report on developmental front.

          He said the recent Municipal and Panchayat elections was a major step towards strengthening the democracy at grass root level that will open a new chapter of development in the state.

          While presenting the performance of the district administration during the  current financial year so far, Dr Choudhary said the year 2018-19 will be remembered as a golden period of the district with major projects  seeing the light of the day.       

          Giving details, Dr Choudhary said the government has recently sanctioned an amount of Rs 97 crore in aggregate for 58 languishing projects through the Jammu & Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) Limited. He said out of these , 29 projects are of aimed at providing pure drinking water supply while 19 projects are to construct incomplete roads and bridges. He said work is going on in full pace on these languishing projects so that same can be completed at earliest.

          He said out of the yearly capex budget of Rs 102 crores, 70 percent of the funds have been utilized so far. He said the Public Works Department (PWD) has blacktopped 122.50 Kilometer roads in the district during the current financial year while the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) blacktopped 44 kilometer roads in the district.

          Dr Choudhary said similarly 10 developmental projects costing Rs 35 crores have been completed in the district. He said eight projects are under execution by JK Housing Boards costing 68 Crores while seven projects costing Rs 68 crores are under progress by JKPCC.

          He said after the additional funding by JKIDFC, the long pending District Hospital Bandipora will partially start its operations from next month.

          While acknowledging that the Power supply has been the major issue in the district due to slow pace of work from past 10 years on Patushai Grid Station, Dr Choudhary said 40 percent of the work on the project has been completed in last eight months and is near completion. He said to complete the 132 KV transmission line for the Patushai Grid Station, 107 towers have been installed out of 111 and will be completed very soon. He lauded the efforts of the officers of various departments who worked tirelessly to complete the project.   

          He said the government also filled all the vacancies of doctors in the health department to make District Hospital Bandipora functional while  funds have been released for establishment of three New NTPHCs. He said  the social Wlefare Department has also disbursed Rs 9.50  crore among 17 thousand beneficiaries for scholarships and under different social security schemes..

          He said  in Education sector 10 building have been completed in the last year at the cost of Rs 5 crore.

He said the year 2018 was full of good news for the people of Girez as it was for the first time connected with internet services.

          He said in October 2018, the Gurez valley received 4G mobile connectivity for the first time in history though certain areas continued to be without mobile connectivity owing to tough terrain and close to the Line of Control (LoC). He said later the district administration took a risk during winters to dewater the Adit tunnel of KHEP so that it could be used to lay BSNL cable which was the only option  left to connect the habitations of Kanzalwan, Bagtore, Izmarg and adjoinning villages with internet facility.

          He said besides this V-sets were installed in 26 remote schools  of Gurez to connect them with global world. He said the long pending alternate route from Authwatto to Khandyal has been finally approved and Rs 62 crore will be spend for the construction of the alternate route to Gurez.

          Dr Choudhary said District Administration, Bandipora established a Rural BPO / Call Centre along with IT Enabled Skills Lab at Mini-Secretariat Bandipora that will provide employment to more than 215 skilled youth and will train 600 educated youth annually for placement in IT sector.

          He said One Stop Centre (OSC)- providing an array of services, from skill development to psychological assistance to violence affected women under one roof is all set to start functioning in Bandipora district from next month and various posts have been advertised for contractual appointment of the staff for the OSC.

          Among other SSP Bandipora Sheikh Zulfikar Azad, ADC Bandipora Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Assistant Commissioner Revenue Reyaz Ahmad Beigh, Officers from civil administration, police, army, besides senior citizens were present on the occasion.

          Later the Deputy Commissioner felicitated the  meritorious students  of  class 10th and 12th besides several officers for their exceptional performance during the year.

          Similar functions were also held at Sub-District Level in  Sumbal and Gurez besides at Tehsil Headquarters.