SRINAGAR- After the overwhelming response to Government’s Back to Village initiative, the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today reviewed the preparedness for the upcoming “My Town My Pride” initiative for the Municipal areas, here at Raj Bhavan.
The two-day long programme will be held in Urban Local Bodies on 19th – 20th October, during which camps for public service delivery would be set up.
The Lt Governor called for all-out efforts for achieving the goal of the two day-long programme to empower the Urban Local Bodies by reaching out to urban population living in towns, with governance at their doorsteps and ensure on spot redressal of their issues and grievances.
Use this initiative to strengthen Urban Local Self-Governance and own the programme to serve the people with responsive, accountable and participatory governance, Lt Governor said to Officers.
Giving thrust to the developmental activities, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore will be released to each Municipal Committee, Municipal Council, and Municipal Corporation, respectively. Funds should be used judiciously for visible impact on the ground, he added.
The Lt Governor laid special emphasis on the time-bound delivery and issuance of important documents, certificates; revenue services, besides ensuring maximum saturation of Social Security and beneficiary oriented schemes, and ensuring mobilization of funds towards meaningful developmental activities as per the needs of the local population.
He directed the visiting officers to assess the ground situation of the allotted ULB vis-à-vis perception of the local public, data provided by different departments, inputs shared by the ULB / prominent citizens and share their own observations.
The Lt Governor directed the officers to identify the gaps in the functioning of the administration and put sustained and synchronized efforts to remove bottlenecks. He asked the DCs and senior officers to encourage the Field Functionaries for this ‘Urban Jan Abhiyaan’ and directed the Divisional Commissioners to monitor the overall conduct of the programme.
“I have been pushing for on spot Grievance Redressal, Instant delivery of services to the masses, and on the ground speedy execution of people-centric projects”, said the Lt Governor
“My Town My Pride” is on the lines of successfully concluded ‘Back to Village’ programme for providing doorstep delivery of different government services and to identify structural issues firsthand. We have three main objectives – Public outreach in towns, Strengthening grass-root democracy, and service delivery at doorsteps, he added.
“Back to Village programme” was a unique initiative by the J&K Government to reach out to the rural population with an objective to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions which was even mentioned by Prime Minister in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme. The sincere efforts on the part of the UT Government received encouraging feedback from the public.
During the Back to Village programme, the population living in urban areas has desired that a people-centric programme on the lines of Back to Village should also be initiated in Urban areas. To fulfil this aspiration of the Urban people, the J&K Government is going to conduct ‘My Town My Pride’, the Lt Governor continued.
Raj Bhavan’s Chopper To Be Used For Medical Emergency
In another welfare measure for the underprivileged, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday approved the use of Raj Bhavan’s helicopter free of cost for emergency evacuation of patients living in the remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
During his string of remote areas visits as part of the Back to Village programme, the Lt Governor acknowledged the hardships faced by villagers, especially during severe winters when most of the hilly areas owing to difficult terrain remain cut off from the major towns and district headquarters.
To assuage the sufferings of the people living in these areas, the Lt Governor approved the use of Raj Bhavan’s Bell 407 across the UT to airlift patients who face medical emergencies and cannot afford the regular chopper services.
To ensure that the facility is effectively utilized, the concerned Deputy Commissioner and the Chief Medical Officer of the district shall submit a certificate indicating the urgency of situation, the income status of the patient, and the reason for airlift as and when the requisition is raised.
The service shall exclusively cater to the emergency airlift of patients who fall below the poverty line and cannot even afford to pay the subsidized charge for the helicopter service which is already in place and available at the disposal of both the Divisional Commissioners.
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