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| Vested interests against development must be countered: CM | | Rs. 13,000 cr being spent on integrated dev of cities in J&K | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Nov 22
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has strongly called for countering vested interests coming in the way of public private partnership in infrastructure development critically needed in Jammu & Kashmir to raise basic facilities for the people.
"If we need development, we have to fight the vested interests who do not want the State to raise infrastructure through public private partnership", the Chief Minister said while addressing the silver jubilee celebration function of the J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation here this evening, adding that huge resources were required for massive infrastructure development. He said the PPP was the answer for this problem and when the government tried to attract private partnership for raising tourism infrastructure in Kashmir some vested interests that were against development, spread the canard that the valley was being put on sale. He said major builders from big cities of the country were interested in developing residential colonies in the State under PPP and asked the cooperative housing corporation to explore the possibility in Jammu, saying it would solve its problem of finances as well as ensure timely completion of projects. He said the State government would extend all possible help to cooperative societies for setting up residential colonies.
The Chief Minister said the two capital cities were expanding rapidly with rural migration taking place at a higher pace during the last two decades. He said pressure of rural migration on both Srinagar and Jammu cities had badly affected basic facilities like drinking water, sanitation and sewerage. Another problem, he said, was that agriculture land was used for constructions leading to a situation where the agriculture produce could be the worst casualty. He said if the trend was not stopped the State might have to soon import 80 percent of food grains from other states and if, God forbid, there was a drought in the country, the first casualty would be Jammu & Kashmir. He said paddy land was also being converted into orchards, thereby further depleting the food grains production. He said for developing housing colonies there was need for identifying barren land instead of utilizing agricultural land. He called for formulating a policy in this regard and also stressed on the need to have vertical instead of horizontal constructions in view of the paucity of land.
Azad said that when he was the union minister for housing & urban development, the central government had initiated the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban National Renewal Mission for the integrated development of major and small cities across the country. He said while the rest of the states received 50 percent funds from the centre under the scheme, J&K was the only state to receive special treatment and 90 percent funds. He said about Rs. 13,000 crore would be spent on development of the cities and towns in the State, adding that Jammu and Srinagar cities alone would get Rs. 8000 crore worth infrastructure development in sewerage, drinking water, roads and solid waste management. He said in the coming four years all major and small cities and towns of the State would development wise present a changed picture.
The Chief Minister said that there was need for planned development of housing colonies in the newly created districts to disallow haphazard growth as well as to meet the likely growing demand of accommodation. He asked the housing cooperatives to seize the opportunity and start the work in the right earnest. He said if the development was not planned these districts might also go the way of other cities in terms of unplanned growth of constructions and resultant problems.
Referring to the cooperative movement in Jammu & Kashmir, Azad underscored the need to make it self reliant as in Maharashtra. He said the cooperatives were so vibrant and financially strong in that state that Government would turn to them for borrowing money in the event of financial crunch. He said if the cooperative institutions in J&K could not financially compete with Maharashtra counterparts to lend money to the government these could at least become self reliant.
The Chief Minister released the souvenir on the silver jubilee of the J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation.
Earlier, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Abdul Aziz Zargar spoke at length about the development of cooperative movement in Jammu & Kashmir of which he had been an important player. He called for brining in more and more people in rural areas within the fold of the movement to increase agriculture production in the State. He said the cooperators had the onerous responsibility of taking forward this movement that he described as vanguard of development. He said the cooperative movement could flourish even in the current era of globalization.
Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Ajaz Ahmad Khan, Commissioner/Secretary, Cooperatives, Devinder Nargotra, Registrar Cooperatives, G. N. Qasba and Chairman, J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation, B. S. Manhas also spoke on the occasion while legislators, Shanti Devi and Ashwani Sharma, Chairman, JAKFED, S. Rangil Singh and prominent cooperators were present. |
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