J&K/Bandipora (The Stellar News): Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan on Monday conducted an extensive tour of Bandipora district to take stock of various ongoing development works with special focus on Disaster mitigation efforts, winter preparedness of PDD and arrangements for the upcoming 75th Independence Day besides meeting several public delegations. The Advisor was accompanied by Chairman District Development Council Abdul Gani, Deputy Commissioner, Dr Owais Ahmad, Senior Superintendent of Police Mohammad Zahid, Director Rural Development Kashmir, Tariq Ahmad Zargar, Director Floriculture Farooq Rather, MD Tourism Syed Fakhrudin, SE KPDCL, Executive Engineers, District officers, DDC members, BDC Chairpersons, Chairmen Urban Local Bodies and other senior officers of the district. The Advisor inspected several ongoing developmental works in the district including roads, receiving stations, Rural Development works, harvesting tanks, tourist facilities etc.He inaugurated Tourist Reception Centre near Wullar Vintage Park Garoora and reviewed the infrastructure being developed in the district to boost tourism sector.
He directed the officers to have a well equipped information centre for tourists so that TRC can facilitate tourist while their stay in Bandipora and shall provide them information with regard to trekking, tourism heritage , pilgrimage tourism and places of attraction in Gurez valley besides historical background of these places . Advisor further directed the officers of Tourism and Floriculture departments to come up with a Detailed Project Reports with regard to the construction of View Points and landscaping of Parks along with fencing along the bank of Wullar lake. He asked them to prepare a comprehensive plan to include water sports activities as tourist attraction at Wullar lake besides a comprehensive plan to boost tourism sector in Bandipora district. Advisor said there is a huge potential of tourism in the district and directed the Director Tourism and Director Floriculture to visit Bandipora for establishment of parks around Wular lake and explore new tourist destinations in the District in consultation with DDC Bandipora.
He also stressed to fulfil the demand of Wular boulevard road by PWD and Tourism Departments immediately as per the proposal already framed. The advisor also inspected under construction receiving station at Sumbal . He urged the officers to expedite the pace of work and set a deadline of 30th September to complete the project. Advisor Baseer Khan later chaired a meeting of officers to review the arrangements for the upcoming independence day celebrations and discussed various arrangements including Flag hoisting, Cultural programmes, Security arrangements, Traffic plan, Sanitation, Sports activities, Medicare, Illumination, Distribution of scholarships, Inauguration and Foundation stone laying of various projects, assigned responsibilities to various departments and directed them to undertake their responsibilities effectively and efficiently. He said programmes involving youth should be given special focus. The Advisor was informed that 238 works have been identified for inauguration/foundation laying in the run up to Independence Day celebrations. While reviewing the Covid mitigation efforts, Advisor directed the officers to ensure 100 percent vaccination in the district besides stressing on preparing a meticulous and actionable plan to address any medical exigency. The Advisor directed to conceptualize plans for efficient vaccination, management of containment zones, movement of people, strict implementation of covid guidelines etc.
Advisor Khan directed the officers to make preparations for the upcoming winter to ensure people don’t suffer and make arrangements before the onset of winter especially augmenting power infrastructure . He said there should be no frequent power cuts or scarcity of transformers in rural areas and if required, transmission lines should be repaired before winter. He further asked the PDD officers to replace rotten poles, conductors and wires immediately as directed in the meetings already taken. He asked officers to strictly follow District Disaster Management Plan and workout the plan of readiness especially in the Gurez area and other higher vulnerable reaches. He directed officers to take up flood protection works on Irn Nalla and along banks of streams and rivers in convergence mode with rural development and Irrigation department.
Advisor also interacted with several delegations raised several issues of public interest and put forth various problems and demands like renovation and up-gradation of several roads, Promotion of water Tourism in Wullar besides bringing other tourist places on tourism map of the UT and making all the places easily accessible through road connectivity, augmentation of electricity supply and improvement of healthcare facilities. Most of the delegations demanded construction of playfields in the district. The Advisor gave on spot directions to the Deputy Commissioner to identify land for Playfields.
While interacting with them, the Advisor said that the main objective of conducting this visit was to review the preparations of Independence Day celebrations, management of Covid, review of developmental scenario on ground and to get feedback from the public. He issued on spot instructions to officers of concerned departments for completion of ongoing works within time frame.
Advisor Baseer Khan said that government has empowered PRIs, they must use their powers to monitor the ongoing developmental works and they must participate in planning and implementation of government schemes on the ground. He further added that PRIs are acting as bridge between Government and public and pace of development has increased in all sectors.
