Despite conducting regular meetings, administration has failed to address the major public issues of importance; Public issues need attention

Despite conducting regular meetings, administration has failed to address the major public issues of importance; Public issues need attention

POONCH TODAY NEWS

POONCH: Although the district administration was seen conducting regular departmental meetings, whether productive or not, and the same was highlighted through print and electronic media platforms, there is a big question mark on the administration for ignoring genuine public issues.

Despite being highlighted by ‘POONCH TODAY’ time and again, the issue of brazen encroachment of market space and encroachments at other places has not been addressed by the administration yet; as a result, the common man is facing hardships while passing through different markets. It’s the duty of the Poonch municipality to conduct regular drives against encroachers, but the officials are seen organizing different march-based and media-shown programs only to hoodwink all that everything is working on the ground. On the issue of ‘Red Zone,’ the administration has repeatedly shown that the law is for poor people only and not for influential law violators, as only selected anti-encroachment drives were carried out. No inquiry was ever conducted to find out on what basis irrigation canals and water bodies were encroached near the ‘Red Zone”. Moreover, the embankment of the PWD road was also encroached. Slowly and steadily under the planned tactics of the encroachers, a number of encroachment acts are still going on, but the administration has adopted a questionable silence on the issue. Before the first official visit of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the district administration carried out an eye wash exercise by visiting different areas of the city to show that the administration was effective on the ground, but after the Chief Minister’s visit, all the issues have not been addressed yet. On the one hand, a selected anti-encroachment drive was carried out near the Poonch fort to target poor people in the name of the beautification project of Poonch fort, on which questionable financial violations have taken place openly, but on the other hand, not a single action was taken against encroachments in the ‘Red Zone”. Influential people near Poonch fort were not touched, but only poor people were targeted. It clearly shows that the administration just believes in double standards on many issues. The officials seem to have adopted a strategy of looking busy doing nothing.  On the condition of anonymity, a lower-rank official of an important department said, “If our HODs regularly take part in these departmental meetings, they will not get enough time to complete the works on the ground.” There are a number of issues of public importance on which the administration has not given any attention. Poonch municipality has become a defunct institution, as the other day, a big March-based program was organized on the theme of ‘Cleanliness,’ but on the ground, no action was taken against open encroachment of market space. At different places in the city, the encroachment of markets and main roads has become a routine affair, but nobody in the administration is addressing this issue, which is giving huge inconvenience to the public. It would be better if ways and means were explored to address all the public issues through strong actions on the ground department-wise, as regular meetings have not shown any major output on the ground, feel people with a farsighted vision on different aspects of development and security.