J&K: Lt Governor Murmu wants to double farmers' income by 2020

The first Lt Governor of the newly carved union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has a clear vision for the farmers as he wants their income to get doubled by next year. Lt Governor Girish Chandra Murmu has directed the officials of the departments of agriculture and horticulture to reach out to farmers and facilitate them by providing them better access to markets so that the goal of doubling the farmers' income by 2020 is realised. Murmu asked the concerned officers to implement the market intervention scheme (MIS) in letter and spirit so that market support is provided to fruit growers to boost the export of high-quality fruits.

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Murmu on Tuesday called for adopting a proactive approach in dealing with weather vagaries and directed proper assessment of recent snowfall damages to the Horticulture sector in Jammu and Kashmir. The Lieutenant Governor gave these directions while chairing a meeting to take stock of the post snowfall scenario and the overall restoration of essential services including power and water supply across all districts of Kashmir division.

Speaking on the occasion, Murmu emphasized that snow clearance machines should be kept in the state of readiness to deal with weather exigencies. He said that restoration period of all the essential services should be minimized in case of damages to the infra at vital installations due to heavy snowfall.

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In order to tackle water-logging, if any, Lieutenant Governor directed for pressing into service an adequate number of fire tenders and dewatering pumps to deal with any kind of exigency. He said that all DCs should come up with proper capacity building centers to optimize resources and responses to mitigate winter-related challenges effectively.

While reviewing the health sector, Lieutenant Governor directed the concerned to procure heavy-duty automatic gensets to be installed at all major health institutions in all districts so that hassle-free health services are ensured to the people during power disruptions due to inclement weather. He also directed DCs to ensure that proper heating arrangements are put in place and adequate stock of medicine is maintained at all health institutions. 

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“Back to Village"

With regard to the ensuing second phase of Government’s outreach –“Back to Village” programme, the Lieutenant Governor stressed on bridging the gap between the achievable and achieved goals in development and taking governance to doorstep of the rural and inaccessible areas to generate credible and empirical feedback. Concerned officers were also directed to reach far-flung areas to assess problems and grievances arising out of recent heavy downpour so that the outreach programme is implemented successfully.

The Lieutenant Governor stressed on establishing disaster management centres along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway to providing quick and prompt rescue and relief measures for mishap victims. 

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