Union Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh today visited the Saddal Panjar village in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, which was devastated in last year's flood in the state.
Singh, who is also an MP from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency, visited the flood-ravaged village, adopted by him last year to develop it as the first modern 'smart village.'
He said the village being rebuilt will be unique as for the first time, a modern village will be build on the ruins.
"The only other prominent example like this is that of the Japan towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were totally devastated by Atom bomb and were rebuilt later," Singh said.
Singh interacted with the locals, and disclosed during a meeting with the administration that the deadline for the completion of the project is June 2016.
The land had been identified for rehabilitation of 135 families, each of which will have a separate exclusive toilet facility, he informed.
The village will not only have a school, but also vocational centre and Anganwadi Centres, Singh said.
In order to develop it into a state-of-the-art and most modern smart village, he said that besides the construction work, all families to be settled in the village will be covered by PM's Social Security Insurance and Pension Schemes and pension provision will also be made available for all the eligible among the affected families.
