Details

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 18 November 2019

• Directs proper snowfall damage assessment of Horticulture sector, successful implementation of ‘Back to Village’ programme

SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today called for adopting a proactive approach in dealing with weather vagaries and directed proper assessment of recent snowfall damages to the Horticulture sector in Jammu and Kashmir. The Lieutenant Governor gave these directions while chairing a meeting to take stock of post snowfall scenario and overall restoration of essential services including power and water supply across all districts of Kashmir division.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Deputy Commissioners of all districts of Kashmir Valley, Commissioner SMC, Director Horticulture, Director, SKIMS, Principals of SKIMS Bemina and GMC Srinagar and heads of several Departments.

Speaking on the occasion, Lt Governor Murmu emphasized that snow clearance machines should be kept in the state of readiness to deal with weather exigencies. He said that restoration period of all the essential services should be minimized in case of damages to the infra at vital installations due to heavy snowfall.

In order to tackle water-logging, if any, Lieutenant Governor directed for pressing in to service adequate number of fire tenders and dewatering pumps to deal with any kind of exigency.He said that all DCs should come up with proper capacity building centers to optimize resources and responses to mitigate winter-related challenges effectively.

While reviewing the health sector, Lieutenant Governor directed the concerned to procure heavy duty automatic gensets to be installed at all major health institutions in all districts so that hassle-free health services are ensured to the people during power disruptions due to inclement weather. He also directed DCs to ensure that proper heating arrangements are put in place and adequate stock of medicine is maintained at all health institutions. 

With regard to the ensuing second phase of Government’s outreach –“Back to Village”-programme, the Lieutenant Governor stressed on bridging the gap between the achievable and achieved goals in development and taking governance to doorstep of the rural and inaccessible areas to generate credible and empirical feedback. Concerned officers were also directed to reach far-flung areas to assess problems and grievances arising out of recent heavy downpour so that the outreach programme is implemented successfully.

The Lieutenant Governor stressed on establishing disaster management centres along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway to providing quick and prompt rescue and relief measures for mishap victims. 

The Lieutenant Governor also directed the concerned officers to reach out to the farmers and facilitate them by providing them better access to markets so that the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2020 is realized. He asked the concerned officers to implement market intervention scheme (MIS) in letter and spirit so that market support is provided to fruit growers to boost export of high-quality fruits.

Earlier, the Deputy Commissioners gave a detailed presentation about their respective districts and briefed Lieutenant Governor about the steps taken by the district administrations post snowfall in terms of restoration of essential services.