Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration to a number of bureaucrats including five in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.Four IAS officers from Jammu and Kashmir, who were conferred the award, include Sheetal Nanda, Administrative Secretary Social Welfare Department, Dr Piyush Singla, Anshul Garg and Baseer-ul-Haq Choudhary, the three Deputy Commissioners presently posted in Anantnag, Jammu and Pulwama districts and Ravinder Kumar, Agriculture Secretary in the Union Territory of Ladakh.Sheetal Nanda, a senior IAS officer, who was Administrative Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj when the Panchayat elections were held, received the award on behalf of the Department.Presently, she is posted in the Social Welfare Department.Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district was awarded under the ‘PM SVANidhi Yojana’, aimed at increasing adoption of digital transactions by the beneficiary street vendors through cash back.The scheme aims to bring the hitherto unbanked street vendor into the fold of formal banking channels, thereby assimilating them into the formal urban economy.The new Yojana was introduced by Deputy Commissioner Anantnag Dr Piyush Singla, who received the award.The Scheme facilitated working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 to street vendors to resume their business hit by COVID pandemic, incentives in regular payment and reward digital transactions. The Scheme helped formalize the street vendors and opened up new opportunities for them.Building of efficient greenhouse to grow crops by Agriculture Department of Ladakh was awarded in the innovation category.In order to mitigate the challenges faced from previously installed large number of passive solar greenhouses, the Agriculture department of Ladakh led the innovation in the design of greenhouses and this has enabled cultivation of crops all the year around.The temperature in Ladakh drops down to -30 degrees Celsius in winter. The farmers needed a technology which will enable them to produce vegetables in winter months.The existing greenhouses were upgraded into more functional efficient greenhouses for crops, reads the citation of the award.The project resulted in food security, women empowerment, doubling of farmers’ income, and in “carbon neutral Ladakh”, it said.Ravinder Kumar, Secretary Agriculture received the award on behalf of the Department. The award consists of trophy, citation and Rs 20 lakh for implementation of the project.Kumar appreciated the role of officials of Agriculture Department and DIHAR (DRDO) Leh for their hard work, dedication and consistent support. He congratulated the whole farmer community for adopting the new technology.Deputy Commissioner Jammu Anshul Garg got the award for his posting as DC Kupwara in 2020.Kupwara ranked amongst the top two districts in the country out of 112 under the Category of Aspirational District Programme for the period April 2019- August 2020.Upgradation of Tertiary Care facilities including launch of PM National Dialysis Programme simultaneously in two hospitals of the district, inauguration of 100 bedded Sub District Hospital with round the clock emergency services and CT scan facility with power backup reducing out station referrals and thus significantly curtailing out of pocket expenditure were among major achievements in Kupwara district.“Border pockets of the district with total population of 30,000 were provided Grid Power connectivity for the first time ever since Independence through Mission Mode approach thus bringing them at par with rest of the country and paving the way for first ever mobile network connectivity also in these areas situated in close vicinity of LoC and proving a boon for education, water supply, irrigation and national security,” sources said.Deputy Commissioner Pulwama
