Jammu: Chief Secretary Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Saturday chaired a meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) for Disaster Management and reviewed various disaster related activities being undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir.
Atal Dulloo, ACS, Finance Department, Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary, Public Works (R&B), and Nazim Zai Khan, Secretary, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation & Reconstruction (DMRRR) participated in the meeting, an official press release informed.
It said the SEC approved the purchase of Rs. 78.50 crore worth advanced snow-clearance machinery including snow vehicles, ploughs, cutters, and front-end loaders for clearance of snow without damaging the road surfaces.
Hitherto, the traditional snow-clearance machinery has been eroding the metalled road surface necessitating repairs of damaged roads each year, the press release said.
Earlier, to address this concern, Chief Secretary had ordered the constitution of a high level committee for formulation of a standard operating procedure for snow-clearance with the focus of reducing damage to the roads during winters.
The committee considered various options and suggested purchase of modern machinery to ensure scientific snow clearance and checking recurrent repairs towards long term maintenance of quality roads in snow-bound areas of the Union territory. The committee had pointed out that introduction of high-end machinery would lead to savings on a long terms basis besides reducing the need of frequent major repairs.
Further, the SEC approved Rs. 3.82 lakhs for conducting four non-residential training courses on different themes of disaster management to promote general education, awareness and community training on vulnerability and mitigation of disasters.
It also approved release of funds to district administrations for meeting emergency expenditures on account of disaster management, relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.
The Chief Secretary also launched the Employees Performance Monitoring (EPM) portal for assessing the monthly work of all government employees in the Union territory, an official spokesperson said.
Terming the initiative path-breaking, Mehta said it’ll take good governance practices a notch higher in the Union Territory.
He complimented the joint team of General Administration Department (GAD) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) for developing the portal in a short time to boost administrative efficiency, the spokesperson said.
Mehta maintained that all employees should be encouraged to file monthly performances capturing their contributions to the departmental goals and achievements.
The chief secretary also urged the officers to make provisions for submitting the performance on behalf of field officials.
Principal Secretary (GAD) Manoj Kumar Dwivedi said it isa first of its kind mechanism in the country, whereby the employees will be required to report their monthly performance up to the 7th of next calendar month on the portal using their CPIS numbers.
The monthly reporting system is likely to bring about much needed accountability and service efficiency, he said.
