Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Deputy Commissioner V. Umashankar’s interface with press


Deputy Commissioner V. Umashankar’s interface with press

12 July 2006

[All Photos can be clicked to view-enlarged version] >>

The new Deputy Commissioner of Sirsa Mr. V. Umashankar held his first formal press conference at the mini secretariat DC office today. After formal introduction with the press and media persons from Sirsa, the deputy commissioner said “Let's discuss some serious business now” Mr. Umashankar discussed the problems faced by the city Sirsa at length especially the water logging in the city after monsoon’s first downpour which was 115 mm, a rather heavy rain for city of Sirsa which gets scanty rainfall. He admitted that administrations as well as people of Sirsa were not really prepared for this kind of heavy downpour, however he said that by and large this rain had been useful especially to the drought hit farm sector. He said that a master plan to siphon out rain water shall be impemented soon. Rain Water Recharging systems are also being looked into.
On a question asked about accountability of officers the DC said that before holding anyone accountable, 3 parameters are necessary to be looked into, 1) Information, 2) Monitoring and assessment 3) Enforcement. Enabling & exercising of RTI (over some period) shall automatically lead to accountability.

Regarding the flyover on the railway on the national highway he said the state Government has cleared the project and that recently in a video conferencing session at Hisar, the chief secretary told him that the bridge should be constructed in near future may be by year 2007, for this the State Govt. is pursuing the matter with Ministry of Surface Transport and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

About erratic power supply he explained at length the problems and said that suggestions are invited about a system like SMS info service, (free or on subscription only) via which people may be informed about a possible power cut. Already it’s being informed via cable TV. A mobile van for fault repairs is already pressed into service; the same can be reached via mobile number 9812215205 by anyone facing difficulty regarding power supply.

Farmers Deputation meets the DC

A Delegation of farmers getting irrigation from Southern Ghagger Canal (SGC) led by Mr. Jaswant Singh Josh, president ‘Lokpanchayat’ (Reg.) and Kuldeep Singh Kariwala etc. met the DC for de-silting of SG Canal before the arrival of flood in Ghaggar River, so that they might get maximum benefit of irrigation from mineral rich flood waters.

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