Kathua, Sep 30:- Union Minister of State, Dr Jitendra Singh Friday chaired District Development Coordination & Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting to review progress on various Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) being implemented in Kathua district.
The official spokesperson said that the meeting was attended by DDC Chairperson, Mahan Singh, DDC Vice Chairperson, Raghunandan Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Rahul Pandey, MC Nagri Parole, Anil Singh, MC Hiranagar Advocate Vijay Kumar Sharma, MC BasohliSumeshSapolia, MC Billawar, Uma Kant Basotra, BDC Chairpersons, DDC members and nominated members of DISHA committee besides district officers of different departments.
District Development Commissioner gave a PowerPoint presentation on the achievements and progress recorded under different Centrally Sponsored Schemes besides status of various development projects being executed by different departments and agencies in the district.
It was informed in the meeting that out of total 265 schemes under PMGSY Phase I and Phase II, 204 works have been completed and the rest are at different stages of execution in the district.
On enquiring about the status of ArunJaitley International Sports Stadium coming up at Hiranagar, DC Kathua apprised that the architectural drawing of the project has been prepared and sent for accord of approval to the concerned authorities.
Dr Singh directed the concerned officers to pace up the execution of allotted work as it is a project of national importance which in the coming times will provide multi-sports facilities to youngsters besides giving them an array of opportunities to nurture their sports talent.
DC, while appraising the Union minister about the status of JalJeevan Mission, informed that the works on all 299 schemes have been tendered.
While taking note of slow pace of JJM works, Dr Jitendra Singh enjoined upon the concerned executing agencies to speed up the works and put in concerted efforts so as to realize the objective of ‘HarGharNal Se Jal’ by providing Functional Household Tap Water connections covering all beneficiaries.
While taking scheme wise review of the projects undertaken by different departments, Dr Singh stressed for timely completion of projects of people’s importance within stipulated time frame. He emphasized on elected PRI’s to work in tandem with administration to achieve desired development results.
Union MOS took a comprehensive review of physical and financial achievements of centrally sponsored schemes including PMGSY, Irrigation, PMDP, RDSS, MGNREGA, PMAY-G, PMAY-G( AWAAS PLUS), AMritsarovar, SBM(G), PMAY-U, SAMAGRA Shiksha besides scheme under Health, Agriculture, Labor, FCS&CA, Employment etc.
While discussing major road works under execution by BRO, NABARD-PWD(R&B), CRF, City and Town Programme and JKPCC, Dr Jitendra Singh reviewed the latest status of projects including dyalachack- ramkote road, hariachak-rajbagh road, Nakkian-kharkada road besides chattergalaraod which has been proposed phase-ii of Bharatmala project.
Dr Singh also passed directions for early completion of works on Hatli road and Juthana Bridge which have been delayed for one or other reason.
The Minister informed that the first phase of the much anticipated ShahpurKandi Project will be completed by December 2022. Besides, work on the Ujh Multipurpose project will be started soon.
Union MOS also directed DC Kathua to identify and procure land for establishing a unit of Tata Memorial Cancer institute in Kathua. He said the hospital will provide much relief to the patients of the region battling against the deadly disease of Cancer.
Dr Singh also disclosed about the establishment of a multi-facility tourist village at the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir Lakhanpur for giving pleasant and memorable experience to the tourists arriving in J&K via road.
Dr Singh called upon the concerned officers to ensure 100% coverage of beneficiaries under IAY and Ayushman-Sehat, further asked PRI’s to ensure all deserving people shall entail the benefit of these schemes.
DDC Chairperson highlighted the issues of compensation for rain and flood affected families, pending MGNREGA liabilities, opening of new KendriyaVidyalayas in Sheetal Nagar and Basohli besides other matters.
Govt job mind-set impediment to StartUp culture: Dr Jitendra
Jammu, Sep 30: Union Minister of State, Dr Jitendra Singh Friday said, the government job mind-set is proving an impediment to StartUp culture, mainly in North India.
Dr Jitendra Singh gave full credit to the futuristic vision of Prime Minister NarendraModi who had given a call for “StartUp India Stand Up India” from the ramparts of Red Fort in his Independence Day address of 2015 that initiated a mass interest, as a result of which the number of StartUps in India has increased from mere 350 in 2014 to over 75,000 in 2022 with more than 100 unicorns, while India under Modi has achieved 3rd ranking in the world in the StartUp ecosystem.
Inaugurating the first-of-its-kind StartUp Expo here, covering areas of Agriculture, Aroma, Dairy, Pharma, IT, Computer and Communications, Dr Jitendra Singh said that StartUp culture is yet to fully catch up the imagination of the youth and entrepreneurs in some of the North Indian States, as comparison to some of the South Indian States, which have taken a magnificent lead, engaging also a chain of globally recognised StartUps.
He said, it is important to take note of some of the exemplary instances of many young entrepreneurs who are seen quitting their lucrative jobs in the MNCs to establish their own StartUps, as these young entrepreneurs are now beginning to realise the possibility of greater fortunes in this.
Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that the StartUp movement in Jammu and Kashmir has been relatively slow, even though the “Purple Revolution” of India was born in J&K and J&K is also the birthplace of the grand Aroma Mission.
He hoped that its impact would be realised through the success stories of various Agri-based StartUps, besides in the fields of Dairy and Pharma.
Dr Jitendra Singh underlined the contribution of cities like Bengaluru and Chennai for the StartUp boom in India and said that the innovators, incubators, and entrepreneurs are making a global mark by focussing on areas like 5G, artificial intelligence, drones, semiconductors, Block chain, green energy and Space economy.
The different Ministries and departments headed by him, informed Dr Jitendra Singh, are providing attractive support by way of both financial assistance as well as technical hand-holding and facility to carry the StartUp products to the market, which also holds a lucrative livelihood opportunity.
But unfortunately, particularly in this region, many of the potential beneficiaries are not able to avail of it because the awareness is lacking although all information is available on websites and portals.
Dr Jitendra Singh regretted that even though StartUp is a very high priority for the Modi Government, it is not a priority for certain sections of the media. He urged upon the media persons to put out atleast one StartUp success story a week, to serve the cause of the youth.
Calling for promoting Agri-tech StartUps in a big way, the Minister said, Agriculture is one of the important pillars of the Indian economy as 54 percent of the Indian population depends directly on agriculture and it accounts for around 20 percent of the GDP.
He said, the success story of the CSIR promoted Aroma Mission of Lavender cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be replicated in other States.
The Minister pointed out that a new wave of Agri-tech StartUps has emerged in the country in the last few years and these StartUps are solving problems related to supply chain management, cooling and refrigeration, seed management and distribution, besides helping farmers to access a wider range of markets. He said, the young entrepreneurs are now quitting their jobs in the IT sector and MNCs to establish their own StartUps, as these young entrepreneurs are now beginning to realise that investing in agriculture is one of the very few safe and profitable businesses.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, ‘Kisan Drones’ could be adopted in a big way for promoting crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients and pointed out that countries like Israel, China and the US have transformed several agriculture practices in their country with the use of technology.
