Srinagar: Chairing a review meeting of Srinagar district and Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) at SKICC, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Thursday said Srinagar needs holistic development and public utilities and called for making infrastructure user-friendly and utilitarian and being creative to enhance aesthetics.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that during the meeting, the LG reviewed various developmental works besides the implementation and progress of the schemes being executed by the Srinagar district administration and SMC.
Observing that Srinagar city was visited by people from across the country and abroad, he stressed the need for holistic development of the city and public amenities.
The LG said that the focus should not be limited to enhancing the aesthetics but to making the infrastructure more user-friendly and utilitarian.
He advised officials for making efforts to turn SMC into a sustainable entity and ensuring that the public service delivery processes were smooth and institutionalised across the city.
“There is a need to start a campaign for revenue generation to further expand and enhance the quality of public services being delivered by SMC,” the LG said.
Earlier, he e-inaugurated 18 development projects worth Rs 65.15 crore in district Srinagar and laid the foundation stone of the Animal Birth Control and Anti-Rabies Vaccination Centre at Chattarhama.
The LG also sought the details of the disbursement of benefits to eligible beneficiaries under different public welfare and social security schemes by the concerned departments.
He issued explicit directions to the officials for saturating the coverage under welfare schemes.
The LG instructed Deputy Commissioner (DC), Srinagar for conducting extensive IEC activities for coverage of left-out beneficiaries.
Reviewing the status of different schemes in the agriculture sector, he instructed the concerned officials to ensure the benefits of all the J&K government and central government schemes reach the eligible beneficiaries.
The LG also took stock of the status of daily milk production and processing being done in Srinagar, besides the efforts made by the concerned department towards tackling the Lumpy Skin disease in cattle.
It was informed that only 38 cases had been reported in 18 days and vaccination of the cattle was going on with alacrity.
The LG also reviewed the functioning of different departments in the district including Jal Shakti, Power Development, School Education, Revenue, Industries and Commerce, KVIB, and KVIC, and sought details of the progress achieved from the concerned officers.
Earlier, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar Muhammad Aijaz and SMC Commissioner Athar Amir Khan gave detailed briefings to the LG on the status of various projects and schemes and other initiatives of district administration and SMC.
Khan also apprised the LG about the status of progress achieved in the projects being executed under Srinagar Smart City.
During the review of various citizen-centric services, it was informed that appropriate action would be taken against officials responsible for causing unwarranted delays in providing public services.
Directions were issued for integrating all citizen-centric services with the Integrated Command and Control Centre.
Enquiring about the Jhelum Riverfront development, the LG was apprised that two components of the project would be completed this year.
The LG called for developing a water-based local economy and beautification of water bodies and areas around them.
Timelines were given for the completion of various infrastructure projects and directions were also issued to achieve greater progress this year in terms of completion of projects than the last year.
Later, the LG also met public delegations and listened to their issues and demands.
He received the memoranda of demands from different groups of public delegations and assured appropriate redressal of their issues on merit.
Mayor SMC Junaid Azim Mattu, Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Production Department Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Department Vivek Bhardwaj, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor Nitishwar Kumar, Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, DIG Central Kashmir Range, and SSP Srinagar were also present in the meeting.