Dr Shahid Iqbal convenes Public Darbar cum Grievance Redressal Camp at Bandipora

Assures timely action on public grievances, demands

BANDIPORA, October 30: 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 commencement of Vigilance Week 2023 against the evil practice of corruption wherein all the participants pledged to follow probity and rule of law in all walks of life to neither take nor offer bribe to perform tasks honestly in the public interest.

Deputy Commissioner, Dr Owais Ahmad, briefed the Secretary regarding 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 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 requirement of manpower in Rural Engineering Wing/RDD, utilization of left over 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, Surinder besides other areas on 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 mechanism 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 construction of bypass road to Bandipora, power augmentation besides upgradation of Srinagar Bandipora road to National Highway.

President MC Hajin also put forth the demands of staff augmentation in CHC Hajin besides bringing Hajin town on tourism map.

Tribal Delegation led by DDC Dr Ghulam Mustafa projected issues like NOCs from forest department for developing infrastructure in the upper reaches of the district. Demands for Tribal school and tribal guest house in the district were also raised on the occasion.

While responding to the issue of tribals regarding NOCs by the forest department, Secretary assured early redressal in the matter. He, on the spot, announced consideration of Tribal Guest house in the district.

Similarly, 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 first hand appraisal from the gross root 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 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 into the notice of concerned departments and assured them of proper action and timely redressal of their grievances.