Advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan Tours Pattan, Hygam, Palhalan and adjoining areas

Baramulla : Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan accompanied by District Development Commissioner Baramulla Bhupinder Kumar, SSP Baramulla Rayees Mohammad Bhat and other concerned senior officers today conducted an extensive tour of Pattan, Hygam, Palhalan and other adjoining areas in the Baramulla district and inspected several developmental works of Rural Development department, Power Development department and Tourism department.The Advisor inaugurated 6.3 MVA 33/11 KVA receiving station at Goom Ahmadpora Pattan that has been developed at an estimated cost of Rs 236.35 lacs benefiting 1200 households. While inspecting the said receiving station he emphasized upon the concerned officers to ensure that people of the area get benefited with the augmentation of the power supply with the new receiving station in place in the area.Advisor Baseer Khan also inspected various ongoing developmental projects undertaken in Rural Development Department. He was apprised by the officers about the current status of the works and the benefits each work is supposed to provide to the local population. He inspected the ongoing Pattan-Palhallan link road constructed under MGNREGA which happens to be an important road from the perspective of public convenience as it can mitigate the traffic congestion on Srinagar-Baramulla National highway to a large extent.

The Advisor issued strict directions to the officers to adhere to the timelines of completion given against each work. He reiterated the directions given by him in numerous meetings about the compliance to time schedules and the quality of works. He laid emphasis on labour intensive works which, he said, are beneficial to the locals in terms of providing livelihood opportunities on sustained basis. The Advisor further directed the officers to make timely payments against MGNREGA works so as to ensure labours do not suffer on this account.The Advisor, Baseer Khan inspected Tourist Cafeteria at Renji Pattan and took stock of various aspects associated with the cafeteria. He was briefed by the Deputy Commissioner about various amenities available for the tourists. The Advisor directed the officers to have deweeding of the water bodies around the cafeteria done immediately so that it adds to the beauty from the Tourism perspective.Advisor Baseer Khan directed the officers to make preparations for the upcoming winter to ensure people don’t suffer and make arrangements before the onset of winter especially augmenting power infrastructure. He said there should be no frequent power cuts or scarcity of transformers in rural areas. He further asked the PDD officers to replace rotten poles, conductors and wires immediately as directed in the meetings already taken. Later, the Advisor interacted with several delegations which included DDCs, BDCs, PRIs, civil society members, traders among other stakeholders.

These delegations apprised him about their grievances and demands pertaining to socio-economic development of their respective areas.Various demands which were highlighted included availability of river bed/soil construction material in the area, Augmentation of Receiving Station Pattan, Utilization of SDH building for conversion into Pediatric and Maternity hospital. Road widening, development of sports ground and issues of water scarcity were among the most highlighted demands by most of the delegations and PRIs.The Advisor gave patient hearing to all the issues and demands. He resolved most of the issues by directing the concerned officers on the spot and said that all other genuine issues that need to be taken up with concerned quarters shall be redressed expeditiously. He said that every possible initiative is being taken to streamline the public service delivery besides terming hassle free public service delivery system as their core concern.Meanwhile, the Advisor urged upon the people to follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) in letter and spirit and termed it vital to avert any kind of exigency that may arise due to third wave of the pandemic.The Advisor asked the PRI/ULB members to assume bigger role in this regard. They should propagate the importance of wearing masks, maintaining social distance and having vaccinations done among the masses at the village and Panchayat levels.