Government of Jammu & Kashmir Housing & Urban Development Department Civil Secretariat, Jammu. Starred A.Q No: 340: Mr. Shah Mohammad Tantray: Will the Government please state Question a) the steps taken to upgrade Municipal Council Poonch; Reply As per J&K Municipal Corporation Act, 2000, no Municipality shall be so declared to be a corporation unless the population thereof exceeds 04 Lacs. b) Whether it is a fact that Poonch City is few miles away from the line of Control is still deprived of BADP Scheme, if so, the reasons thereof; and c) whether it will consider any special package for Poonch being historically important, if not, the alternative measures being taken in this behalf? Assistant Director (P&S) Housing & Urban Dev. Department The population of Poonch Municipal Council as per Census 2011 is only 22, 516, thus council does not qualify norms for its upgradation to Municipal Corporation. It is a fact that Poonch City is few miles away from the line of Control. However, funds are being provided under BADP also for Poonch block as per the BADP guidelines on the basis of Annual Action Plan being submitted by the District Development Commissioner, Poonch to the Planning Development & Monitoring Department on its approval in the State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) headed by Chief Secretary. At present there is no special package available for Poonch. However, Housing & Urban Development Department is providing funds on annual allocation basis for improvement of civic amenities in the towns under Integrated Development of Medium Towns (IDMT) scheme of Urban Development Sector and also for carrying out Storm Water Drainage works in Drainage Sector in the town. Sd/- Deputy Chief Minister (Minister I/C) Housing & Urban Dev. Department
Urban Development Sector: Supplementary information to Starred A.Q No: 340 Under Urban Development Sector of State Capex Budget in the scheme Integrated Development of Medium Towns (IDMT), the Annual Action Plan has been approved on the basis of works programme submitted by the line agencies viz; DULBJ/K as per the works indentified by Hon ble Public representative. During 2017-18, an amount of Rs. 400.00 Lacs for execution of 210 different nature of works have been approved under the said scheme in Jammu Division which includes Rs. 14.00 Lacs for execution of 13 No. of different nature of works for MC Poonch. In addition to it, an amount of Rs. 20.00 Lacs has also been released for execution of 08 No. of emergent nature of works on the recommendation of Hon ble public representative during current financial year. Drainage Sector: Under this sector, 40 schemes are ongoing under State Capex Budget at an estimated cost of Rs. 147.24 Crore, against which, a cumulative expenditure of Rs. 55.54 Crore has been utilized upto 03/2017. During current financial year Rs. 400.00 Lacs has been approved which stands released in full, which includes Rs. 20.00 Lacs for drainage scheme of Poonch town. Besides, an amount of Rs. 40.00 Lacs has also been released as per the recommendations of Hon ble MLA for construction of Nallah Walling from Academy to H/o Mir Rashid in W. No. 1, Poonch town. Border Area Development Project (BADP) (District Sector) The Planning Development & Monitoring Department has also approved Annual Action Plan under BADP for the year 2017-18 amounting to Rs. 632.50 Lacs for District Poonch and an amount of Rs. 532.90 Lacs as 1 st instalment has been released to District Development Commissioner, Poonch for its utilization on the approved works plan of 2017-18 as per block/sector wise breakup as under: - Block wise details (Rs. in Lacs) Block No. of works Estimated cost Approved allocation Funds released during 2017-18 Poonch 137 2487.64 156.19 138.79 Mandi 69 1163.82 143.31 112.99 Mendhe 113 3647.26 205.60 150.35 r Balakote 26 937.70 50.75 45.78 Multi Block 2 0.00 110.00 75.99 schemes 347 8236.42 665.85 523.90
Sector wise details (Rs in Lacs) S. No. Name of Sector Approved plan Funds released 1 Soil Conservation on Agriculture Land 39.00 30.82 2 Social Forestry 12.40 10.24 3 Solid & Water Conservation Forest 16.00 13.71 4 Minor Irrigation 27.80 22.99 5 P.H.E 35.26 28.05 6 R&B 255.11 208.80 7 EM&RE 14.73 11.24 8 Education 44.86 33.79 9 R.D.D 47.00 39.51 10 Skill Development 18.57 14.95 11 Health 15.19 11.42 12 S.T.D 14.96 11.79 13 Maintenance Assets 12.60 10.62 14 Adm. Expenses, Survey, Publicity and logistics support 10.00 6.90 15 Const. of Community Bunkers 69.02 69.02 Total 632.50 523.90 The Housing & Urban Development Department has also undertaken execution of 12 Storm Water Drainage Schemes at a cost of Rs. 2631.28 Lacs for execution under BADP since 2012-13. A cumulative expenditure of Rs. 2423.21 Lacs has been incurred upto 03/2017 which also include Drainage scheme for Mendhar town of Poonch district. The balance requirement of Rs. 199.07 Lacs has been approved under BADP during 2017-18 for their completion as detailed hereunder: (Rs. in Lacs) S. No. Name of town Estd. cost Cum. Exp. ending 3/2017 Balance funds reqd. for completion 1 D/S Bishnah 322.26 296.72 25.54 2 D/S Arnia 347.35 322.00 25.35 3 D/S R.S. Pura 211.67 194.56 17.11 4 D/S Ghou Manhasan 196.00 179.08 16.92 5 D/S Khour 92.00 87.54 4.46 6 D/S Jourian 95.00 87.54 7.46 7 D/S Ramgarh 457.00 423.14 33.86 8 D/S Hiranagar 239.00 219.00 20.00 9 D/S Rajpura 80.00 72.97 7.03 10 D/S Ghagwal 151.00 141.06 9.94 11 D/S Mendhar 220.00 204.30 15.70 12 D/S Nowshera 220.00 204.30 15.70 Total:- 2631.28 2432.21 199.07