Jammu and Kashmir: LG Sinha calls for reaching out to urban population with governance at doorsteps

The Lieutenant Governor said this while reviewing the preparedness for the upcoming “My Town My Pride” initiative for the Municipal areas here at Raj Bhavan on Friday.

The two-day long programme will be held in Urban Local Bodies on October 19 and October 20, during which camps for public service delivery would be set up.

The Lt Governor called for all-out efforts for achieving the goal of the two day-long programme to empower the Urban Local Bodies by reaching out to urban population living in towns, with governance at their doorsteps and ensure on spot redressal of their issues and grievances.

Use this initiative to strengthen Urban Local Self-Governance and own the programme to serve the people with responsive, accountable and participatory governance, Lt Governor told the officers.

Giving thrust to the developmental activities, he said Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore will be released to each Municipal Committee, Municipal Council, and Municipal Corporation, respectively. “Funds should be used judiciously for visible impact on the ground,” he added.

The Lt Governor laid special emphasis on the time-bound delivery and issuance of important documents, certificates; revenue services, besides ensuring maximum saturation of Social Security and beneficiary oriented schemes, and ensuring mobilization of funds towards meaningful developmental activities as per the needs of the local population.

He directed the visiting officers to assess the ground situation of the allotted ULB vis-à-vis perception of the local public, data provided by different departments, inputs shared by the ULB / prominent citizens and share their own observations.

The Lt Governor directed the officers to identify the gaps in the functioning of the administration and put sustained and synchronized efforts to remove bottlenecks. He asked the DCs and senior officers to encourage the Field Functionaries for this ‘Urban Jan Abhiyaan’ and directed the Divisional Commissioners to monitor the overall conduct of the programme.

“I have been pushing for on spot Grievance Redressal, Instant delivery of services to the masses, and on the ground speedy execution of people-centric projects,” said the Lt Governor

“My Town My Pride” is on the lines of successfully concluded ‘Back to Village’ programme for providing doorstep delivery of different government services and to identify structural issues firsthand. We have three main objectives – Public outreach in towns, Strengthening grass-root democracy, and service delivery at doorsteps,” he added.

“Back to Village programme was a unique initiative by the J&K Government to reach out to the rural population with an objective to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions which was even mentioned by Prime Minister in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme. The sincere efforts on the part of the UT Government received encouraging feedback from the public,” he said.

“During the Back to Village programme, the population living in urban areas has desired that a people-centric programme on the lines of Back to Village should also be initiated in Urban areas. To fulfil this aspiration of the Urban people, the J&K Government is going to conduct My Town My Pride,” the Lt Governor continued.

Referring to the Second Administrative Commission report, in which intensive research was done on Urban Governance, the Lt Governor observed that the report suggested that by 2026, level of Urbanization will significantly increase and we can witness that phenomenon today.

Keeping this in view; Lt Governor suggested that the officers visit different municipal areas and collect information and data for reform-linked investments that would help in region-wise long term planning.

“Urban Services Improvement Projects are going on in some of the States with the assistance of international agencies. We shall also make efforts towards asset creation, with identification of sectors with the scope of innovative financing and public-private partnership,” the Lt Governor said.

The Lt Governor also called for exploring modalities to integrate the ongoing programmes of the Government to make Cities and Towns sustainable. Focus should be on strengthening the local network of governance through participatory democracy, he added.