Dehradun: Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan reviewed the saturation points outlined in the 2024-25 budget speech during a meeting at the Secretariat. He directed all departments to prepare detailed action plans with fixed timelines for each commitment made in the state budget.
Emphasizing improved connectivity, Bardhan instructed officials to present an action plan for air connectivity to all district headquarters and key tourist destinations, with strict monitoring at every stage. The Public Works Department (PWD) was directed to immediately repair unsafe bridges and ropeways currently in use for commuting. Where ropeways are operational, new bridges must be built at the earliest. He also ordered safety audits of privately operated ropeways, with PWD tasked to repair them as per government norms. Additionally, state roads must be equipped with crash barriers under a time-bound plan.
On governance reforms, Bardhan asked departments to expedite the shift to e-office systems, ensuring complete integration with the state secretariat. The IT Department has been instructed to accelerate implementation.
For science and innovation, he directed officials to speed up the establishment of theme-based science and innovation centers across districts, starting with land identification in Rudraprayag. Employment centers in all 13 districts will be developed into self-employment hubs with libraries, video conferencing, and centralized facilities. Industry and Employment departments have been tasked with coordinating these plans.
The Education Department was instructed to ensure availability of furniture in schools and set up libraries in all district headquarters and towns with populations above 50,000. These libraries will be managed on a society model, similar to the Doon Library, to address operational and maintenance challenges.
The review meeting was attended by Principal Secretary R. Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretaries Sachin Kurve, Dilip Jawalkar, and C. Ravishankar, Additional Secretaries Dr. Ahmad Iqbal, Ranjana Rajguru, Himanshu Khurana, and Gaurav Kumar, among other senior officials. The session was conducted by Additional Secretary Manmohan Mainali.
