Days after Delhi gave mandate in favour of Aam Aadmi Party Government for its “development works”, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday asked all the Deputy Commissioners to prioritize the core sectors of education, health, power and water for ensuring quality of life of citizens across the State.
Capt Amarinder, chairing a meeting of all DCs, directed them to go for extensive monitoring of various development and welfare schemes related to these focus sectors to ensure strict implementation of such programmes.
The Chief Minister also asked the DCs to tighten their belts to push development and welfare projects to fulfill the people’s aspirations in line with the Government’s development agenda for the State.
At the same time, he made it clear that respect for elected representatives is a must in democracy, and asked them to be courteous in their dealings and give due respect to the legislators to ensure overall development.
To ensure smooth delivery of citizen-centric services, the Chief Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners to personally keep close tabs on the functioning of Sewa Kendras in order to curtail the pendency of applications for seeking various citizen services.
The Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Governance Reforms, Vini Mahajan informed the meeting that 515 sewa kendras were functioning in the State, with a pendency of 42,261 against 2,60,4975 applications received from all the districts. She also pointed out Sewa Kendras projects, under the current service delivery model, were self-sustainable and there was no burden on the Finance Department.
On the issue of drugs, the Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over the results so far, and the resultant perceptible decrease in the number of drug users and huge seizure of drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as the arrest of several drug peddlers and smugglers.
However, the Chief Minister further asked the DCs not to be complacent in this regard and work in tandem with the Special Task Force (STF), District Police, and the Health Department to achieve better results to eliminate the scourge of drugs, as well as to rehabilitate the drug addicts.
Taking serious note of electricity theft in the border areas, especially in Tarn Taran district (71.29 percent), the Chief Minister said that this led to huge losses to the State exchequer, and must be checked with a heavy hand. He asked the Deputy Commissioner Tarn Taran to work out a strategy with the police and PSPCL to stamp out this menace.
Reviewing the progress of his Government’s flagship ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ programme, the Chief Minister asked the DCs to tie up with leading employers, industrialists, business groups and job providers for sourcing of vacancies with a package of Rs three lakh per annum and above.
It was informed that under the Punjab Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar Mission, the Government has planned high end job fairs during March 2020 at Amritsar, Phagwara, Bathinda, Mohali and SBS Nagar. Graduates from different fields like engineering, management, medicine, hospitality, tourism, agriculture, animal husbandry, banking, arts and science etc can participate in these job fairs, which aim to facilitate employment to over 2000 youth with high end jobs.
Reviewing the progress of social security and welfare schemes, the Chief Minister asked the DCs to intensify their efforts for recruitment of staff in Sakhi – One Stop Centres, besides identifying suitable land for establishment of Sakhi Centres and Child Care Institutions.
He also asked the DCs to expeditiously fill up the vacancies in District Child Protection Units to ensure safety and security of children. He also gave the DCs the target of issuing 100 percent Unique Disability Identity Cards, by June 30, 2020, to all the divyangs who had paper certificates.
Capt Amarinder also instructed the DCs to identify adequate panchayat lands to provide five marla plots to the landless and homeless poor families on priority. He also asked the Principal Secretary to include certain development works like upgradation of infrastructure in schools and street lights in rural areas under the smart village campaign.
Expressing grave concern over the growing menace of stray cattle and dogs, which had become a major nuisance and had claimed several precious lives in the past several years, Capt Amarinder asked the DCs to suggest ways and means to tackle the problem of stray cattle in a holistic manner.
The Chief Minister also reviewed flood preparedness with the DCs and asked the Chief Secretary to place sufficient funds on their disposal to execute various flood protection works, especially at vulnerable sites, well in advance of the onset of the monsoon season.
He also asked the DCs to complete the disbursement of compensation to flood victims on account of last year’s massive floods and get all requisite formalities done from the revenue officials.