Leh, Jul 13 :_ The Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (Retd) held a meeting with Chairman and Executive Councillors of LAHDC Kargil along with the Departmental Secretaries/Directors and Head of Departments physically and virtually at the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat to review the progress of ongoing works/schemes in Ladakh and to discuss the issues faced by them in carrying out the projects/schemes.
At the outset, the HLG stated that the objective of the review meeting is to discuss the works done along with incomplete works that need to be expedited. Directing all concerned Departmental Secretaries/Directors and Head of Departments to attend the meeting unfailingly, the HLG stated that the officials must apprise him of the issues of the respective departments, the need to resolve the issues discussed in the meeting in a timebound manner and finding a viable solution to complete the pending works.
The HLG stated that the Directors and Head of Departments would be given one charge so that they could focus on their departments and ensure that the department’s work doesn’t suffer. He also asked Advisor, Dr Pawan Kotwal, IAS, to hold a meeting of the Departmental Secretaries to ensure an increase in spending of the budget allocated by the Government of India to UT Ladakh.
The HLG discussed several other issues in the meeting, viz. the submission of Recruitment Rules (RR) for the gazetted posts of Animal Husbandry and Power Development Department; the feasibility of conducting the At-Home function on the occasion of Independence Day this year in Kargil also; the requirement of the post of Director for Sheep Husbandry Department; the construction of Police Post along with Animal Husbandry Department’s shed on the other side of the river in Rangdum village to stop the infiltration of Bakarwals from J&K for grazing their cattle; the processing and expediting of SRO-43 cases; promotion of sea buckthorn products; setting up check posts in border areas; the update on establishment of Engineer College and Sindhu Central University in Ladakh; the update on purchase of MRI machine for District Hospital, Kargil; allocation and distribution of more pashmina kid pens among the beneficiaries in Changthang area; the possibility of operation of IAF flights or Air India flights at Kargil Airport under the Udan scheme; the update on status of visa for the technician who would visit China for training to operate the Pashmina Dehairing Plant; the update on saturation of 4G mobile towers by BSNL; the update on sugar liability and the money deposited; the update on saturation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Ladakh along with ensuring that only the Sarpach is allowed to collect fee for water charges from the villagers and not by any government official; the garbage clearance in different blocks along with the need to clear garbage from transformer enclosures in Leh; the need for a holistic approach for construction of public conveniences-cum-cafes at Khardung-La and Chang-La along with ensuring that there is no littering in that area; the need to define the definition of hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and homestays in Ladakh; the need to upgrade the manpower of UT Disaster Response Force (DRF) and establishing a separate unit at Leh and Kargil districts, their proper training and conducting mock drills on a regular basis; the need to provide lucrative stipends to Aapda Mitra when they are on duty at the time of incidents of disasters in Ladakh, etc.
Chairman, LAHDC Kargil, Dr Mohd Jaffer Akhoon raised several issues related to Kargil district, including the need to resolve the issue of payment of salaries of teachers engaged under the Samagra Shiksha scheme in Kargil; the need to sanction staff such as safai karamchari and housekeeping on outsourcing basis for Council Secretariat at Kargil; the need to allocate special fund for Muharram and resolving the border issue at Zoji-La between Ladakh and J&K, etc.
The HLG informed Dr Mohd Jaffer Akhoon that the salary of teachers engaged under the Samagra Shiksha scheme would be paid by July 20 after getting the nod from the Ministry of Education. He stated that Deputy Commissioner, Kargil would prepare the list of manpower required at Council Secretariat in Kargil on an outsourcing basis and share the list with Advisor, Dr Pawan Kotwal. He asked Dr Kotwal to look into the demand for the allocation of special fund for Muharram based on past practice.
Other issues such as banning plastic bottles up to 1 litre and packaged plastic chips along with forming a committee to look at alternatives to these problems were also discussed in the meeting.
Chairman, LAHDC Kargil, Dr Mohd Jaffer Akhoon; Executive Councillors- Shri Zakir Hussain, Shri Kacho Mohd Feroz and Shri Aga Syed Mujtaba Musavi; Advisor to the HLG, Dr Pawan Kotwal, IAS; Principal Secretary, Shri Sanjiv Khirwar, IAS; ADGP Ladakh, Dr SD Singh Jamwal, IPS; Commissioner/Secretary, Dr Vasanthakumar N, IAS; Commissioner/Secretary, Smt Padma Angmo, IIS; Commissioner/Secretary to the HLG, Shri L Franklin, IAS; Secretary, Shri Yetindra Maralkar, IAS; Secretary, Shri Michael D’Souza, IAS; Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Shri Santosh Sukhadeve, IAS; Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Shri Shrikant Suse, IAS; Directors, Head of Departments and other concerned officials were present in the meeting.
