MUZAFFARABAD: The second meeting of Azad Kashmir Development Working Party for the current financial year 2021-22 was held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Development Dr Sajid Mahmood Chauhan.
The meeting was attended by the secretaries, heads of departments and the officers of planning and development department while the representatives of the government of Pakistan participated in the meeting through video link. The meeting reviewed and considered 28 developmental projects of various departments involving an expenditure of four billion and 840 million rupees. The projects relating to agriculture, forest, environment, health, industries, higher education, electricity, communication, physical planning, information technology and women development departments. The important projects reviewed and considered in the meeting of the Development Working Party include breeding of high breed of cows in Azad Kashmir under Livestock Department, demarcation and protection of forests under Forest Department, promotion of environmental management and provision of emergency medicines in major hospitals of the state under the health department. Apart from these projects, renovation of Government Post Graduate College hostel in Muzaffarabad district under the Department of Higher Education and installation of biometric system in colleges of Azad Kashmir were also reviewed and considered at the meeting.
The construction of 34km roads, improvement and completion of projects including Tatta Pani Bypass Road in Kotli District, Jagran Resort to Cotton Road in Neelum District, Kail to Taubat Road and the projects from Chogli, Bangi Musa Road and Bangaran Tatta Pani to Thandalan Miki Masjid Link Road in Poonch district were also on the agenda of the meeting.
In addition the construction of jail building in Muzaffarabad, provision of facilities in Supreme Court and High Court in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, provision of lift in Supreme Court and improvement in water quality in Kotli district were also a part of the agenda. The plans for setting up of Azad Kashmir Web Portal and E-Facilitation Center under RCDP and payment of land compensation in development institutions under RCDP were also considered at the meeting.
Addressing the meeting The Additional Chief Secretary Development Dr Sajid Mehmood urged the officials to complete all the development projects within the stipulated time. He said unnecessary expansion should be avoided and secretaries should ensure timely and transparent completion of the projects. He said while designing the projects the requirements of the people should be given priority. He urged all the departments to complete their PC-1 and send it to the Planning and Development Department so that timely action could be taken on them and the targets for the financial year could be achieved.
