Shadow Correspondent
kathua, Oct, 04
DDC Chairman Kathua Col Mahan Singh (Retd) met Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department Giriraj Singh and demanded strengthening of DDCs in J&K to ensure good governance.
During the meeting with the Union Minister, Col Mahan also submitted a detailed memorandum comprising burning demands of the Kathua District including the aforesaid seeking more funds for the DDCs to make sure that these can function more efficiently.
The DDC Chairperson conveyed this to the Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department Giriraj Singh during his visit to Bashohli constituency of Kathua district here today as a part of massive Outreach Programme.
Col Mahan said that the Kathua District has varied terrain with snow clad hamlets, hilly and semi hilly regions and Kandi belt besides industrial area along NH 44. He said to cater to the needs of over 7 lakh souls residing in the district a vibrant DDC is a must but the current status of the same is not upto the mark due to lack of funds, resources and other logistics. Therefore empowerment DDC in Kathua is quite necessary. Besides providing sufficient funds, there is need to train DDC members, formulate rules and regulations with regard to functioning of DDC, rectify protocol of DDC members by removing anomalies, release the pending payments of the works done before J&K’s bifurcation, widen Lakhanpur – Mahanpur – Basohli road, construct tunnel through Balasundri hills connecting Billawar and Kathua, widen Dayala Chakk -Shallan road, construct Hatli – Manu, Daggar – Katli, Billawar – Badnota roads besides widening the Kathua – Chann Gran – Nagri road. There was another vital demand raised during the meeting.
Col Mahan demanded a railway line between Manwal (Udhampur) and Pathankot via Ramkot, Billawar and Basohli. Besides other demands, Col Mahan also demanded the government’s focus on exploring the tourism potential of Kathua District, which according to him was facing utter neglect of the successive government since the last several decades.
After going through the memorandum and listening to demands of Col Mahan, the Union Minister assured that all the genuine issues will be projected at the relevant platforms in the PMO and MHA for early redressal.
