Punjab Government has envisaged Rs 1,220 crore plan to completely overhaul a total of 12,282 villages of the state by ensuring latest and modern outlook to the rural areas.
“Under the newly-formulated plan, the Punjab government would take up 17255 village ponds of 12282 villages to be comprehensively cleaned ensuring proper drainage of polluted water,” said the state Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Developments and Panchayats Parkash Chand Garg.
He said that an amount of Rs 120 crore would be spent on this project which would be completed within three years. “The State Government has allocated an amount of Rs 100 crore for 2014-15 to be spent on the cleanliness of village ponds,” said garg.
Besides, he said, “during the current financial year, as many as 58 panchayat ghar would be constructed and Rs 12 lakh would be spent on each panchayat ghar”.
“The State Government has already approved an amount of Rs 36.25 crore under the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Shasastrikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) for the construction of panchayat ghars in the state,” he said.
Garg said that the Punjab government was also committed to provide modern clean lavatories in the villages and an amount of Rs 20 crore would be spent on this mission under which each and every house would have a clean toilet.
“Rs 15,000 would be spent on each toilet out of which Rs 11,500 would be spent under this scheme whereas Rs 3,500 would be spent by the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme,” he said.