State Urban Development Minister and Housing Minister CP Singh held a review meeting with urban development department officials on Wednesday evening at the Circuit House in the city.
He asked local civic bodies to acquire land for projects before giving nod for detailed project report (DPR) and tender for different urban infrastructure. “lack of lands is a major hurdle. We have seen that several projects getting delayed due to non availability of land. The urban development department has directed all officials of local civic bodies to first ensure availability of land before giving green signal to the project,” said CP Singh.
Several important projects like the JNNURM solid waste management project have been delayed in the city due to delay in land acquisition for project.
The Minister admitted of the menace of garbage lying on roads in cities of the road. “Shortage of manpower is also one of the major issues in different State-owned civic bodies across the State. The department has therefore gone for outsourcing of cleaning operations in the city to private hands and necessary directives have been issued to the local civic body officials,” said CP Singh.
He said that they have directed the officials of various departments to carry out cleanliness of various localities, culverts, drains and other parts of the cities. “We asked them to take immediate preventive measures or face the music. Every year Monsoon rains coupled with hailstorm create havoc in the cities with drains overflowing leading to water clogging,” he noted.
The Housing Minister said that Government would soon start a massive drive to free State housing boards property from encroachment under the Jamshedpur division.
“As per our records around 100 acres of land belong to Jharkhand State Housing Board (JSHB) has been encroached under the Jamshedpur division of the board at Govindpur and Adityapur. We will carry a massive anti-encroachment operation,” said Singh.