STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In a novel initiative, Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh on Sunday held an online feedback session with his constituency Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) representatives. The feedback included inputs regarding the progress of development work in the particular region, implementation of Party programmes and the public mood in general.
The session, lasting three hours, was held in three separate groups consisting of PRI representatives from relatively peripheral areas of the two districts of Kathua and Udhampur respectively. Each group was comprised of an assorted combination of mostly Sarpanches and Panches with a few DDC members and BJYM office bearers of the Pahari Zila.
Underlining the significance of this initiative, Dr Jitendra noted that recently under the Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana, a practice had been started wherein if he was physically visiting one district of Uttar Pradesh, there would be an online feedback meeting with the other district which was not being physically visited at that time. He said, learning from this experience, he had decided that while his regular weekly visits to one of the six districts of the constituency, by turn, will continue as has been the routine followed by him in last nine years, he would simultaneously be holding online sessions with the representatives and workers of the particular district not visited physically during that week.
Dr Singh appreciated his Parliamentary office teams at Jammu and New Delhi for having put the system in place for this purpose. During the meeting, Panches and Sarpanches unanimously held the view that in the last nine years, not a single week had passed when as an MP, Dr Jitendra Singh had not visited one or other district of his constituency and even during the COVID pandemic, he maintained regular contact, through telephone or video conference, to know about the well-being of Party workers. This new initiative, they said, will not only widen the network of real -time contact but also enable the introduction of new technology modes of contact between the elected representative and the electorate.
Since today’s meeting was primarily confined to the elected representatives and Party workers of the two districts of Kathua and Udhampur, DC Kathua Rahul Pandey and DC Udhampur Krittika Jyotsna respectively were also brought on line simultaneously for instant response to some of the issues raised by those attending the meeting. Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the two Deputy Commissioners for their positive and cooperative attitude in handling the issues raised by the PRI representatives.
During the meeting, suggestions were put across by Panches and Sarpanches about the new roads to be constructed in their respective territories under Central PMGSY and CRF schemes. Dr Jitendra Singh said, he had issued instructions right from the beginning that in the choice of PMGSY roads to be built, first priority is to be given to the proposed roads suggested by Panches, Sarpanches and other PRI representatives, because they are the immediate representatives of the area and also answerable to their voters. There was also general appreciation for Dr Jitendra Singh’s personal intervention in getting some of the bottlenecks cleared, like for example the Majalta Bridge and Shahpur-Kandi project.
Dr Jitendra also suggested that the BJYM and Kisan Morcha members should come forward to extend the Aroma Mission and Lavender cultivation in the Banni-Billawar belt on the same lines as has been done in districts Doda and Reasi. He asked them to hold awareness camps for Agri-StartUps for which, he said, they would be provided all the technological, logistic and other support.