Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday led his cabinet colleagues and top bureaucrats to the border district town of Poonch where he reviewed the ongoing development works and directed the officers to prioritize resolution of grievances of people. Local MLAs were also present during the meeting.

This was the first outreach of Omar after becoming CM of Jammu and Kashmir. He chose to first visit Poonch along the Line of Control (LOC) to have first hand information of the problems faced by the people in the border region.

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He wrote on social media; “Today, I led my cabinet colleagues and administrative secretaries to the border district of Poonch for a high-level review of the ongoing development works and the effectiveness of the administration in the district. I directed the administration to prioritize the resolution of public issues”.Omar said discussions were held with officials and they have been instructed to address any shortcomings related to development work.

“Today, our intention for coming to Poonch was to take note of the ground realities after the elections. This is the first district in the Jammu region where we met officials, MLAs and the DDC chairperson”.

“We took a review of grassroots-level development and problems and listened to both officers and local representatives,” he told reporters. During his visit to Poonch, he chaired a meeting at Dak Bungalow with top officials from all departments to review the status of development works in the border district.

He said, “Some issues were made answerable by the officers. We also met delegations of the people, as it is our duty to reach out to the public since we are elected by them. We met 24 delegations.” Omar was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, members of his council of ministers and senior officials as part of an outreach programme aimed at bringing the government to the doorsteps of people in rural districts. “We have issued instructions on the ground regarding the issues projected by the public at the grassroots level,” he said.