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| Azad sets foot at village rarely visited by MLA | | | Early Times Reporter
Rajouri | Mar 18
There are no two opinions about Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s efforts to reach the unexplored areas. This afternoon the Chief Minister addressed a gathering and listed the achievements of his government at a place where the local MLA would have hardly visited after seeking election.
Peeri is a secluded hamlet in Budhal tehsil of Rajouri district which is yet to see a road connection. Chief Minister’s presence at Peeri assumed a symbolic significance in itself even though he did not offer the local people any big package as they might have expected.
Azad said sectors like road connectivity, drinking water, education, healthcare and power were witnessing unprecedented development activities. He said the significant aspect of the development offensive launched by his government was that building of critical infrastructure had, for the first time, been extended to remote villages where people had started harvesting the benefits.
The Chief Minister made a particular reference to the hilly and border district of Rajouri and said that the area was going through a phase of development seen never before. He said lack of road connectivity in areas like this had been the main obstacle for progress. Accordingly, he said, his government attached utmost priority to building of roads and providing connectivity to people, adding that the development travels through roads.
Azad said that in the road sector, Rajouri district was poised for complete transformation. He said in the year 2007-08, an amount of Rs. 22 crore were allocated in the road sector for Rajouri district which was 5 times more than the last year. He said an additionality of Rs. 5.30 crores had also been provided in the road and bridges sector. He cited figures to make the point that since the time he took over as the Chief Minister, road construction in the district was receiving high priority. He said in the year 2007, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, as many as 25 road schemes comprising 198 kms of length were taken up in the district at a cost of Rs. 85 crore. Against this, he said that from 2001 to 2005, only 10 schemes with a total road length of 50 kms, costing Rs. 12 crore, were taken up. He said these figures spoke of the importance given by the present government to road connectivity. He said for the next financial year beginning from April 1, 2008, as many as 40 new road schemes covering a length of 231 kms would be taken up at a cost of Rs. 113 crores. He said with the World Bank funding, another 8 roads would be constructed in the district adding 61.5 kms. The total cost of these 8 schemes was Rs. 27.5 crores, he said, adding that under NABARD, 25 new road construction schemes were initiated in the district last year costing Rs. 53 crore.
The Chief Minister made a special mention of the Mughal Road and opening of the Poonch-Rawlakote cross-LoC road and said while the former would provide the much needed alternate inter-province link between Kashmir and Jammu, the later had met the aspirations of the people divided by the LoC. He hoped that the dialogue process between India and Pakistan would resume soon and said that it would lead to the Poonch-Rawlakote road eventually being used for cross-LoC trade. He said the work on the Mughal Road was started on April 13, 2006 and would be ready as a fair weather road by the end of this year. He said 30 kms of road length on either side had been completed while the difficult zone of 24 kms in the middle was reached now. |
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