Delivering on its pre-poll promises, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Punjab on Monday announced a slew of decisions, including providing 300 units of free electricity to households from July 1, setting up of 117 Mohalla Clinics, launching much-talked-about Farishtey scheme to help the accident victims, introducing “Punjab Young Entrepreneur Programme” for Class XI students, and upgrading 100 schools as “schools of eminence” in the State.
Presenting the State Budget for 2022-23, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday also announced initiatives like setting up the Chief Minister’s field offices in all districts, “Lok Milni”, annual awards for best districts and sub-divisions.
“Good governance model has eight major characteristics...participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law. I assure the people of Punjab that the AAP Government would deliver on these all eight characteristics,” said Cheema while presenting the budget proposals.
Matching steps with the technology and the changing times, Cheema announced the setting up of Centre for Emerging Technologies to enable the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the functioning of the Government.
A ‘District Performance Dashboard’ has also been proposed to monitor the performance of districts on various indicators, while introducing greater purpose and accountability in the administration’s functioning.
A ‘State Institute for Smart Governance and Financial Management’ would also be set up for developing a good governance model. In addition, the Government has also proposed to come up with a ‘State Data Integration Platform’ (SDIP) to facilitate access and management of data across all departments.
Reminding AAP’s promise to give “good governance”, Cheema pointed out that the Government has already enhanced the timings of all 320 Sewa Kendras and Saanjh Kendras by two hours on weekdays, with these Kendras also remaining open on Sundays. He added that the Government has introduced 100-plus new services through Sewa Kendras taking the total number of such services to 425.
“A flagship program, ‘Lok Milni’, has been launched by our Government for on-the-spot redressal of the people’s grievances,” he said.
“We also propose to introduce the ‘Doorstep Delivery Services’ system whereby citizens would be able to avail various services from the comfort of their homes. Essential public services like getting caste or marriage certificates, driving licence, ration card, new water connection or electricity connection etc, would soon be delivered at their doorstep,” said Cheema.