Jammu, March 9 (Scoop News) – Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar on behalf of Chief Minister informed the House that Government has engaged M/S RITES Ltd to prepare a comprehensive mobility plan for capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu to regulate the traffic under cabinet decision.
The Minister was replying to a clubbed question by S. Trilocan Singh, B. A. Magrey and Vijay Bakaya in Legislative Council today.
He said the cost of offer and other terms and conditions have been discussed with M/S RITES Ltd by a Committee of Administrative Secretaries and these are being placed before the cabinet for approval after which, a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed with them. He said the RITES would be asked to start the work immediately and RITES study will be completed within 8 months as per the time schedule furnished by them.
Replying to the supplementaries raised by Murtaza Ahmad Khan and M. Y. Taing, the Minister said Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah was keen to regulate the traffic movement in two capital cities of the State for which he recently chaired two meetings to clear the bottlenecks. He said there is a tremendous pressure on both the cities as 6, 70,000 vehicles are registered in the State against 21, 000 vehicles on 1974-75.
The Minister further told the House that the Government is taking various short and long term measures to address the problem of the commuters which include action against the persons violating traffic laws, installation of Delineators, traffic cones and road dividers on various roads to enforce lane driving and discipline amongst the motorists and other traffic related measures as the short term measures like diversion and restriction depending upon the nature and volume of traffic on the city roads as well as educating the people above traffic laws and rules to create awareness among the masses.
As a long term measures, the Minister said a comprehensive plan has been devised to upgrade bridges, roads from two lane to four lane. He said construction of flyovers from Jehangir chowk to Natipora in Srinagar and Vikram Chowk to Gandhi Nagar have been also taken up under ABD funding. He said the construction of by passes from Reya Morh to Nagrota in Jammu and from Galandar to Narbal in Srinagar are being proposed to be taken up on PPP mode, if the Centre not agrees to sanction these projects under National Highway Development Programme.
The Minister said that the Government has appointed a high Powered committee to look into the proposals of the re-organization of the Jammu Kashmir Traffic Police and has recommended creation of 1496 posts of various categories in the traffic wing of J&K Police in three phases, out of which, 653 posts were created in the first phase, adding that creation of 431 traffic police personnel in the 2nd phase has been taken up with Finance Department.
Criteria fixed for IAY, BRGF: Sagar
Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar informed the House that the criteria adopted for selection of beneficiaries under IAY and BRGF is that the households living below poverty line are being covered under these schemes on the basis of permanent wait list depending upon availability of funds.
The Minister was replying to a question by Syed Asgar Ali in Legislative Council today.
He said the wait list was prepared after conducting Gram Sabhas and the list of beneficiaries was finalized out of the permanent wait list after conducting public meeting in the presence of MLAs, Sarpanches, Members of Vigilance and Monitoring Committee.
Several welfare schemes for retired police personnel in vogue: Sagar
Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar on behalf of Chief Minister informed the House that Government has launched several welfare schemes for the retired police personnel.
The Minister was replying to a question by Javid Ahmad Rana in Legislative Council today.
He said till date 218 retired police officials were benefitted by these schemes. He said the J&K Police Welfare Board was dissolved in 2001 as it had outlived its utility in light of the existence of a number of other welfare schemes.
Ajay Sadhotra, Abdul Gani Vakil, Ravinder Kumar raised the supplementaries.
12 road projects approved for Wachi under NABARD: Sagar
Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar on behalf of Chief Minister informed the House that execution and upgradation of 12 road projects under NABARD from RIDF-XII to XVI have been approved in Wachi constituency, out of which the execution of two projects have already been completed and construction work of 10 road projects is in progress.
The Minister was replying to a question by Showkat Husain Ganie in Legislative Council today.
He said under PMGSY, 5 road projects have been sanctioned in Wachi constituency, out of which, 4 roads are already completed and one is under progress. He said under the State sector, 9 schemes are under execution and 4 schemes under projectization, have been taken up during the current financial year. He said 20 kms road length have been blacktopped out of 75 link roads of the constituency and blacktopping the remaining roads will be taken in hand subject the availability of funds.
E-tendering introduced for execution of PMGSY projects: Sagar
Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar on behalf of Chief Minister informed the House that the Government has introduced E-tendering in PMGSY for early execution of construction work.
The Minister was replying to a question by Mohammad Amin Bhat in Legislative Council today.
He said a proper mechanism for fixation of contracts is already in place and being followed by letter and spirit. He said so far 282 works have been allotted under Phase VII and the process of fixation of contracts for the remaining packages is on and the process is being expedited.
The supplementaries were raised by Naresh Kumar Gupta, Altaf Ahmad Wani, Khalid Najeeb Suhrwardy and Sheikh Ghulam Rasool.