BANDIPORA: Secretary Tribal Affairs, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Monday presided over a Public Darbar cum Grievance Redressal Camp here at Mini Secretariat and took stock of grievances and demands of people.
The event commenced with the Integrity Pledge ceremony on the eve of the commencement of Vigilance Week 2023 against the evil practice of corruption wherein all the participants pledged to follow probity and the rule of law in all walks of life to neither take nor offer bribes to perform tasks honestly in the public interest.
Deputy Commissioner, Dr Owais Ahmad, briefed the Secretary regarding the overall development scenario of the district.
Chairman District Development Council, Abdul Gani Bhat; Vice Chairperson, DDC Kowsar Shafeeq; SSP, Lakshay Sharma; President Municipal Council Bandipora, Basharat Najar, and Nodal Officer Coordination, Mohammad Ashraf Hakak among representatives of various delegations were present on the occasion.
The Public Darbar witnessed an overwhelming response from all sections of the society where people apprised Dr Shahid Iqbal of issues being faced by the locals seeking intervention in redressing the same.
DDC Chairman submitted a Memorandum of demands including the requirement of manpower in the Rural Engineering Wing/RDD, utilization of leftover funds from Capex for meeting out the contingencies caused by calamities and disasters etc.
The DDC delegation also demanded bringing different areas of Bandipora including Ketson, Aragam, and Surinder besides other areas on the tourism map.
The DDC and BDC members put forth the issues concerning their respective areas like compensation for damaged crops, road connectivity in higher reaches, devising of robust mechanisms for flood-prone and affected areas near water bodies, land for landless families, filling of vacant posts, demands of Blood Bank in CHC Sumbal and early completion of College building in Hajin.
President MC Bandipora raised demands like the construction of a bypass road to Bandipora, and power augmentation besides the upgradation of the Srinagar Bandipora road to the National Highway.
President MC Hajin also put forth the demands of staff augmentation in CHC Hajin besides bringing Hajin town on the tourism map.
A tribal Delegation led by DDC Dr Ghulam Mustafa projected issues like NOCs from the forest department for developing infrastructure in the upper reaches of the district. Demands for Tribal schools and tribal guest houses in the district were also raised on the occasion.
While responding to the issue of tribals regarding NOCs by the forest department, the Secretary assured early redressal in the matter. He, on the spot, announced consideration of a Tribal Guest house in the district.
Similarly, a delegation of Sarpanchs presented their issues and demands, including augmentation of staff in panchayats, especially VLWs, technical staff besides JEs.
Dr Shahid, while interacting with line departments, called for adopting a time-bound redressal/execution mechanism in resolving the issues of public importance by making optimum utilization of resources.
Secretary said public darbar is a platform to obtain a first-hand appraisal from the grassroots level besides reducing the communication gap between the public and the administration.
Earlier, the Secretary inspected various stalls installed by different departments.
Dr Shahid Iqbal, on the occasion, handed over authority and sanction letters to various beneficiaries pertaining to business and other income units.
Secretary also handed over keys of vehicles to the beneficiaries of the Mumkin scheme besides giving away keys of mechanised agricultural machinery to unemployed youth.
Dr Shahid Iqbal, while addressing the gathering, said that their demands shall be brought to the notice of concerned departments and assured them of proper action and timely redressal of their grievances.
