Srinagar, July 15: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Friday announced holding of urban local body elections in the State after the month of Ramadhan adding that the Housing and Urban Development department has been asked to finalize arrangements for the same.
“Establishment of urban local bodies and Municipal Corporations is the next target of the Government this year after conducting the Panchayat elections in the State”, he said.
The Chief Minister was chairing District Development Board meeting of Srinagar at SKICC here.
Omar Abdullah asked the District Administration to be prepared for these elections. “We intend to hold the elections after the month of fast”, he said adding that Government wants all the three tiers of democratic institutions functioning effectively to ensure good governance and involvement of grass-root public representatives in the development and plan formulation processes.
Omar Abdullah gave nod to the total resource commitment of Rs 90 crore for District Srinagar for the year 2011-12 which includes the district annual plan allocations and additionalities under projectization.
Appreciating the efforts of District Administration in execution of works and registering expenditures despite law and order situation in Srinagar during the last year, the Chief Minister expressed the hope that the officers would show further improvement in their performance and remain pro-active and responsive to the public demands on development fronts. He underlined the need for judicious expenditure of funds and timely completion of works. The Chief Minister asked the administration to study the 3rd party monitoring agency NABCON reports and make note of the points identified by the agency to correct the development strategies wherever required.
Speaking in the meeting, Union Minister and Parliament Member from Srinagar, Dr Farooq Abdullah announced Rs 10 lakhs for each Srinagar Constituency under the Parliament Members Constituency Development Fund. He also announced Rs 25 lakhs for the construction of Sarai at SKIMS.
The Union Minister told the legislators that he would also keep another Rs 5 lakhs reserved for each Assembly segments. “These funds will be made available to you after you utilize Rs 10 lakh per constituency”, he told the legislators.
The Minister for Rural Development, Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani, Advisors to the Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul and Devender Singh Rana, Vice Chairmen of various advisory boards, Rachpal Singh, M.A. Bkhari, B. A. Naz, Shamima Firdos, Khem Lata Wakhloo and Kuldip Raj Verma, Chief Secretary and heads of various administrative departments besides heads of the departments and District Officers participated in the meeting.
Legislators, Dr Mustafa Kamal, Afaq Ahmad, Javed Mustafa, Irfan Ahmad Shah, G. Q Pardesi and Muhammad Ashraf in their speeches highlighted the development needs of their constituencies.
In a power point presentation, the District Development Commissioner, Srinagar, Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo gave resume of achievements registered during the last year in the district in various sectors. He said against the total availability of Rs 50.88 crores, the expenditure of Rs 50.23 crores has been registered.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST