#JAMMU: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated Prasad cum Souvenir Counter of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board in the departure area of Jammu Airport, today.

The facility will fulfill the long pending demand of the devotees of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ji from across the country to make packaged Prasad and other Souvenir available at the Jammu Airport, said the Lt Governor.

At the inaugural ceremony, the Lt Governor shared initiatives taken by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board for providing better facilities to the pilgrims.

The Shrine Board has also taken several digital initiatives to facilitate the devotees from across the country and abroad, he added.

The Lt Governor also distributed the Prasad packages to the people at the airport.

Premium Panchmewa Prasad, Gold Medallions, Silver Coins and other souvenirs will also be available at the Prasad counter.

Pertinently, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has taken several measures for enhancing the efficiency of the operation of door-to-door delivery of Prasad boxes, Panchmewa Prasad and minimising the delivery time with real time tracking of Prasad.

Five dedicated Prasad Kendras cum Souvenir Shops have been made operational in the last 10 months besides operationalization of 07 counters in existing establishments. A Modern Prasad Kendra cum Souvenir Shop was inaugurated at Bhawan by Lt Governor in the month of February this year.

Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Anshul Garg, CEO Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board; members of the Shrine Board and other senior officials were present.

#REASI: Annual Baba Jitto Aghar Mela, which commenced on June 3, concluded today amid Vedic rituals and chanting of mantras by a group of Pujaris of Baba Jitto shrine at the site.

A small village Agar, located about 5 km from Katra, was beautifully decorated for the big event. Thousands of devotees from within and outside J&K including from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pardesh thronged the place to pay obeisance to Baba Jittu Mal- a farmer, who had preferred to end his life instead of bearing the injustice at the hands of greedy landlords.

ADC Abdual Star was the chief guest on the last day. He lauded the efforts put in by the Aghar Management Committee, locals and district officers for making elaborate arrangements for the successful conduct of Aghar Mela.

 The devotees took the holy bath at springs known for having a healing power and paid obeisance at the temple constructed in the memory of the saint farmer. It is believed that by taking a bath in the spring, people can get rid of skin diseases.

A Dangal competition organized by the Mela Management Committee witnessing the participation of  professional wrestlers hailing from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and several parts of Jammu and Kashmir, was one of the major attractions on the concluding day.

On the second day of the Mela, a Culture programme was also organised by the Department of Information and Public Relation in which many cultural troupes performed.

Awareness camps and exhibition stalls put up by the Government departments including Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Floriculture, Handicrafts, Health department, tourism and various other departments showcased their schemes and programmes.

The locals and the Mela committee appreciated the DDC Reasi Babila Rakwal for adding new events to the Mela that helped attract a large number of people.

#SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today stressed on making the issuance of ‘Life Certificate’ online and bringing all other eligible services under the Auto-appeal system by 15th of June.

Dr Mehta made these remarks while launching new online services of H&UDD pertaining to application for license by Architects and Draftsmen in Municipal Corporations of Jammu/Srinagar and all other Municipal bodies across J&K.

On the occasion Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Commissioner Secretary, GAD; Commissioner Secretary, IT, Commissioner, JMC; CEO, JaKeGA; Scientists from NIC besides other concerned officers were present.

The Chief Secretary appreciated the efforts of the IT Department and NIC for in-house development of all these services. He said that the performance of the Department has been excellent in promoting digital J&K.

He advised the concerned to further expedite the process of incorporation of auto appeal feature in Service plus platform. He asked them to onboard atleast 100 services on this portal by next week and all the other eligible services under the Auto-appeal system by 15th of next month.

He also directed incorporating of all the required  improvements relating to  the departmental websites by upgrading their content so as to make them compliant with the standards set under National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA).

The Commissioner Secretary, IT, Prerna Puri informed the meeting that by launching these 6 services of H&UDD today, the number of online services offered by the UT has risen to 480 today. She apprised that all these services have been linked with payment and SMS gateways for ease of applicants.

She further added that soon more services would be made online and the number of such services is going to touch 500 mark soon.

During the meeting the Chief Secretary also reviewed the progress made in development of services like online FIR registration, online billing of water connections besides others.  He enjoined upon the officers that by offering services online and bringing them into the ambit of Auto-appeal system is ensuring their timely delivery and weeding out corruption.  He observed that with the system of auto-escalation under PSGA in place both the quality and delivery of services to public would improve a lot as is reflected from the statistics of services brought under this prudent system during the past year.