Jammu, March 6 (IANS) J&K Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Thursday answered questions pertaining to construction of bridges, waste management, public grievances and other issues during question hour in the assembly.
The Deputy Chief Minister informed the House that a comprehensive DPR has been formulated for construction of a bridge over Bheeni Nallah at Kaloran, Nangla Dull road in Bani worth Rs 583.78 lakh.
The Deputy Chief Minister was responding to a question raised by MLA Rameshwar Singh. He said that DPR for construction of 75 m span bridge with 700 m approach road amounting to Rs 583.78 lakh has been prepared which is under active consideration of the sanctioning authorities during the next financial year, subject to availability of resources.
The Deputy Chief Minister further stated that the grievance, in this regard, had been registered on the web portal of L-G Mulaqaat.
Meanwhile, Minister for Social Welfare, Sakeena Itoo, informed the House that the Municipal Committee Dooru /Verinag distributes twin household dustbins among all households to segregate waste at the source, along with installation of twin bins in commercial areas for segregated collection of garbage in twin towns of Anantnag district.
The Minister was replying on behalf of the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, to a question raised by G A Mir in the Legislative Assembly. The Minister said that for collection of waste from the households and commercial establishments, eight hoppers are deployed regularly and the waste is subsequently transported to the Material Recovery Facility Plant at Verinag, where it is further segregated into dry waste and wet waste separately.
The dry waste is processed in the MRF center, which is then recycled and sold out, while the wet waste is put into the compost pits for generation of organic compost.
The Minister informed that eight hoppers, 25 tri-cycles and one truck laden with sucker have been procured for Dooru and Verinag while as the department intends to procure machinery including weight bridge, baling machine and shredder for improvement in sanitation and waste management segregation.
The Minister, while replying to a supplementary, stated that three Solid Waste Management Plants of 4 TPD each have been approved for MC Dooru-Verinag. Besides, one Solid Waste Management Plant of 4 TPD is functional at Veering, where the dry waste is processed at MRF facility and the wet waste is processed through pit composting method, she added.
She said that the Municipal Committee is committed towards ensuring efficient waste management practices through continuous improvements in segregation methods. Efforts are being made to enhance citizen participation, upgrade infrastructure and adopt innovative solutions for waste processing, she added.
The Minister further said that under SBM (U) scientific processing of the Municipal Solid Waste in the small and medium Towns of J&K has been undertaken.
She said that the establishment of 78 Solid Waste Management centers (WMCs)/Material recovery Facility (MRF) along with compost pits has been approved. She added that construction work in 52 locations has been undertaken, of which, 33 Waste Management Centers/MRFs and 30 compost pits have been completed, while the work in 19 more sites of WMCs/MRF and 22 compost pits is under progress.
Further, she informed that bio-remediation of legacy waste at the dumping sites like Bhagwati Nagar, Kathua, Samba, Udhampur, Tral, Bijbehara, Pahalgam, Anantnag and Tangmarg has been completed and 3.88 lakh MT legacy waste has been bio-remediated. She apprised that the work has been awarded for bio-remediation of 6.16 lakh MT legacy waste at Kot Bhalwal by JMC, 2.98 lakh MT by DULBK and 1.20 lakh MT for 7 ULBs of DULBJ. Besides, the tender has been floated for bio-remediation of 11.00 lakh MT legacy waste at Achan, Srinagar, she added.
Regarding housing facilities, the Minister said that PMAY-Urban 2.0 has been launched in September 2024 to address the housing needs of EWS/LIG and MIG income categories by providing financial assistance for construction/purchase of houses through different verticals of the scheme in the next 5 years.
She informed that Rs 907.68 lakh have been released to the beneficiaries for construction of houses since 2018 in Dooru and Verinag.
Out of 747 sanctioned houses, 505 houses have been completed while 161 are under-construction as per the CS&MC data of MoHUA.
Meanwhile, Minister for Jal Shakti Javed Ahmad Rana informed the House that protection works are being undertaken under Flood Management Project Phase-II along the river Jehlum, wherever required. He was replying to a question raised by Peerzada Mohammad Syed in the Legislative Assembly.
The Minister stated that crate protection works are being undertaken at specific locations depending upon the vulnerability/weak spots. He said that these works will be completed by the end of March, 2025 at an estimated cost of Rs. 84.00 lakh.
Regarding the beautification work on the river banks of the Jhelum from Mehandi Kadal to Donipawa, the Minister informed that the Irrigation and Flood Control Department does not have any exclusive budget to undertake beautification work on river banks.
He said that the mandate of the department is to undertake anti-erosion works to prevent the bank damage, sloughing and breaching due to floodwaters.
MLAs, Basheer Ahmad Veeri and Tanvir Sadiq raised supplementary questions on the question. Burzahama Hospital to be constructed at an alternate site.
Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Itoo informed the House that the Burzahama Hospital will be constructed at an alternate site and appropriate provision of funding will be kept for timely execution of the project.
The Minister made these remarks while replying to a starred question raised by Salman Sagar in the Legislative Assembly. She informed that the construction work on the Burzahama Hospital building was stopped on the objections of the Archaeological Survey of India, the Union Ministry for Culture.
“During the year 2013-14, the construction of PHC Burzahama was taken up in hand under State Sector Capex Budget at an estimated cost of Rs 179 lakh through JKPHC, against which Rs 17 lakh were released.
However, the construction work could not be carried out due to objections raised by the Archaeological Survey of India, as the construction site comes under their jurisdiction, thereby causing the work on the project to halt, apprised the Minister.
The Minister further said that the Intizamia Committee Burzahama offered a piece of Auqaf land for construction of the Health Centre at an alternate site but the Revenue Authority (Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar) has not yet transferred the land to the department for execution of this vital project.
“The department shall explore the possibility for construction of this health project at an alternate site and make appropriate provision of funding for timely execution,” she said.
Javed Ahmad Rana, today informed the House that all areas in Srinagar have been covered and the people are being supplied with scheduled portable water supply by the department. The Minister was responding to a question from legislator, Shamima Firdous.
The Minister said that the government is committed to facilitating the supply of essential services to the people and ensuring timely repairing of defunct water supply schemes. He maintained that no water supply pipeline is defunct in Srinagar city and whenever any distribution line gets damaged, the same is restored under stage contracts and the damaged pipelines beyond repair are replaced by new pipelines properly.
The Minister said that the department is providing sufficient potable water supply as per the schedule of existing water treatment plants, and currently there is no area that is uncovered.
MLA, Mubarak Gul, also raised supplementary questions on the question. Replying to another question raised by MLA Reyaz Ahmad Khan, the Minister said that PHE works are being executed by PHE Division Bijbehara while as irrigation works are being looked after by Irrigation Division Anantnag and flood related works are being executed by the Flood Control Division Anantnag for Shangus.
The Minister said that there is no requirement for creating these facilities separately for Shangus as of now. He assured that the government is committed to providing all basic facilities to the people in all far-flung areas.
Sakeena Itoo said that the government has developed an online portal for availing various revenue services for the ease of the public. The Minister said this while replying to a question on behalf of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, asked by MLA, Surinder Kumar.
The Minister informed the house that the Revenue Department has developed an online portal ‘jkrevenue.nic.in’ for application of CLU in order to ensure ease of process for the applicant.
She added that with this portal, an applicant has no need to visit any government office for availing such services.
–IANS
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