Calling it yet another milestone in achieving the objective of strong and vibrant urban local self-governance in J&K a reality, exhorts all Prabhari officers to handhold the ULBs in their journey towards becoming Aspirational Towns

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 16 (KNS):  Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting to review the outcomes achieved under 2nd iteration of the programme, ‘My Town My Pride 2.0’ across all the urban areas of J&K. The meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary, H&UDD, Secretary, Culture, Secretary Tourism, Secretary IT, and Officers of the Finance, PDMD, RDD& H&UDD.

The meeting was informed that the recently concluded MTMP 2.0 was a resounding success where a record number of 7.16 lac people participated in the programme across the UT, from 28th November 2022 to 6th December 2022. Special awareness camps were arranged by variousDepartments involved in delivering public services like issuance of domicile certificates, widow/ old-age/ disability pensions, Aadhaar, water and power connections, issuance of birth and death certificates, land revenue extracts, sewage and cleanliness services, etc at the venue of the programme itself and through a weeklong “Shahri Jan Abhiyan”..

During MTMP 2.0,  2,740 Street vendor licenses, 1144 Kisan Credit Cards, 6251 Soil Health Cards, 38973 Golden cards, 40482 e-challans, 3402 e-Shram Cards, 53923 Passbooks, 4680 Disability Cards have been issued by the concerned Departments during MTMP 2.0. In addition, 2843 awareness camp were held for saturation of various schemes viz  PMAY(U), DAY-NULM (Deen Dayal Antodaya Yozana), Self Employment Programme (SEP), PM SVANIDHI (Atam Nirbhar Bharat) AMRUT 2.0 and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBH-U),  1,33,524 Households covered under door-to-door awareness drive under ban on single-use plastic, 1,362 beneficiaries covered under Grah Pravesh (PMAY-Urban), Sports activities were carried out in 80 towns during Jan Abhiyan and 140763 sports persons were participated, 5002 individuals covered under self employment drive in the ULBs. 248 CSC camps organized in Corporation and ULBs, 2649 inheritance mutation done, 1743 Ladli Beti and 36556 Anganwadi beneficiaries seeded with Adhaar during Jan Abhiyan,  96  Divyang Camps held during Jan Abhiyan, 560 Senior Citizens clubs were got  formed in various ULBs.

Besides 837 works completed during 2021-22 under District/UT Capex physically verified by the senior Officers of Planning Department and uploaded on Physical Verification Portal.

Chief Secretary complimented all the Departments/ Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Chairman/Presidents of the ULBs for their efforts in the successful conduct of MTMP 2.0 across all the ULBs of J&K UT and achieving the desired outcomes for various activities. He further laid emphasis for rapid transformation of all the Towns to be led by the respective visiting officers, designated as “Prabhari Officers”.

He also applauded the H&UDD for organizing the interactive sessions on Municipal Finance, including urban reforms incentive fund (URIF) by inviting public representatives, trade associations, Residents Welfare Associations, NGOs involved in municipal and allied fields, besides, other City Specific Plans viz; City Livelihood, City Smart Vending, Green City, City Tourism & Culture, City Beautiful and Encroachment Free City for all 78 Urban Local Bodies to enable towns and cities embark upon the journey of becoming Aspirational Towns. 

It may be recalled that two years back, in a first of its kind initiative, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir embarked on an ambitious and extensive programme of reaching out to the people at the grassroots level. The landmark initiative in urban areas, called ‘My Town My Pride’, with a focus on – Public outreach in towns, Service Delivery at doorsteps, and Strengthening Grassroot Democracy, was a huge success in its first version conducted in October 2020. People participated in large numbers in the “My Town My Pride ’programmes, and it gave the Government a much better insight on various issues considered important by the people in urban areas.

To meet the expectations of the urban populace, it was decided to launch the 2nd iteration of the programme, ‘My Town My Pride 2.0’ across all the urban areas of J&K. This programme involved the people of J&K and government officials in a joint effort to deliver the mission of equitable development in urban areas.

The programme was aimed at energizing Urban Local Bodies and directing development efforts in urban areas through community participation. As part of this programme, more than 170 senior officers of the Government reached out to Urban Local Bodies in J&K, where they interacted and obtained feedback from the grassroots, so as to tailor the government efforts in improving delivery of services specific to that area.

Simultaneously, routine issues related to delivery of services were also resolved at the special camps arranged by departments at the venue of the programme itself and through a weeklong “Shahri Jan Abhiyan”.

Apart from this, a major focus in the second iteration of the My Town My Pride Programme was the Municipal Finances and preparation of City Specific Plans to enable our towns and cities embark upon the journey of becoming Aspirational Towns.

As in the case of the ‘Back to Village’ programme, this programme was also conceived with the objective of ensuring that developmental initiatives are built on the feedback and cooperation of the people, thus being more result oriented, with greater probability of success than those which are top down. The programme revolves around the concept that while the official machinery must guide and assist, the primary responsibility to improve local conditions rests with the people themselves. Therefore, they must be encouraged to own a programme so that benefits are maximized. Therefore, the essence of this programme is to emphasize the importance of ensuring, people’s participation, not merely as an agent in the execution of the development works but as owners of the entire programme.

While the two days ‘My Town My Pride 2.0’, preceded by the weeklong “Shahri Jan Abhiyan” culminated on 6th December 2022, the journey of our towns for rapid transformation will continue, led by the respective visiting officers, designated as “Prabhari Officers”.

This initiative is yet another milestone in achieving long term objective of strong and vibrant urban local self-governance in J&K a reality.(KNS)