Inspects progress of transit camp Wandhama

BK News 

Ganderbal, Sept 27: The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole Sunday asked district administration Ganderbal to extend its full support for the establishment of permanent Central University of Kashmir (CUK), varsity at Tulmulla here.

The Div Com also directed the heads of the Civil, Electric, Irrigation and Flood Control, Revenue, Jal Shakti, and other departments to provide full support and cooperation to the authorities in the CUK on this.

He said this during his visit to the camps at Tulmulla to review the progress on developmental works and inspect its functioning.

During the visit, the Div Com was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, Shafqat Iqbal, Chief Engineers I&FC and JKPDCL besides other concerned.

The establishment of the Central University of Kashmir is a mega and important project as thousands of students from Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the Country will be pursuing their higher education in it.

Our priority should be to extend the fullest support in their endeavour of setting up of the varsity at the permanent campus.

Later, the Div Com while chairing a meeting of the senior officials of all the concerned and allied departments and the university officials regarding the setting up of the university and allotment of land said that, “priority should be to extend fullest support in their endeavour of setting up of the varsity at the permanent campus.

While expressing strong resentment over the delay in work execution, the Div Com said that instead of outside agencies, the university has to seek help and cooperation from the local experts and engineers, well versed with the geography and topography of the area.

He further assured full help from UT Government to strengthen the varsity’s campus development wing and extend help under various government schemes for construction of roads, water supply and electricity. He also assured to provide more land to the varsity and asked DDC Ganderbal to take necessary steps for the same.

The Div Com also asked the university to conduct a fresh survey and prepare a new master plan accordingly, adding that university should now focus on horizontal expansion rather than vertical constructions.  He gave on the spot instructions to the departments for road widening, dredging and to remove the encroachment of the land, done by certain individuals and asked the concerned to come up with the Detailed Project Reports immediately. He also assured that the administration will look into the matter of providing additional land for construction of utilities for the university.

Earlier, CUK Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj-ud Din Mir gave comprehensive details about the journey of the university since its inception in the year 2009 on both the academic and infrastructure front. He said that despite facing several issues and problems on account of functioning from multiple campuses first in Srinagar district and now in Ganderbal district, the university has made a mark on the academics front and is currently offering 35 Postgraduate, Under Graduate /Five-year Integrated, Research and Diploma programmes, adding that when compared with the institutions established with it, the Central University of Kashmir is marching ahead of them on academics.

However, the Vice-Chancellor expressed anguish over the university’s inability to construct the permanent structures, according to the already drafted and approved master plan at Tulmulla, citing several reasons, especially the low load-bearing capacity of the major chunk of land, transferred by the Government to the university besides, several Executing Agencies including NBCC and NPCC have also failed to adhere to the timelines for constructing of Pre Engineered Buildings, he added.

Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar in his detailed presentation gave information about the progress of establishment of the CUK on the infrastructural front at the designated campus in Tulmulla and the impediments and hiccups faced by the university in this regard.

The Divisional Commissioner along with DDC and senior functionaries in the district administration also inspected the ongoing construction works at the designated site.  The chief engineers of various wings assured to extend full support to the university.

Later, Div Com inspected the progress of work on Transit Camp Wandhama, Ganderbal where he was briefed by the Executive Engineer R&B about the layout design and progress of ongoing work on the project.