With Mayors complaining that they were not being given “due respect” by the authorities in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday accepted their demand for read beacon on their vehicles.
He also directed the Secretary local Government Department to immediately tie up with General Administration Department to get the status and protocol of the Mayors clearly defined and thereafter issue necessary guidelines accordingly.
A high level delegation of Punjab State Council of Mayors (PCM), under the aegis All India Council of Mayors, comprising mayors from Punjab and UT of Chandigarh called on Badal on Saturday.
A spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that Badal assured that the mayors heading the constitutional posts in Municipal Corporations of the cities deserved to be accorded appropriate respect and honour by the civil and police administration of districts besides the state administration and thus asked the local Government department to issue detailed instructions to all the Deputy Commissioners/SSPs and Heads of the Departments at state headquarter to ensure proper respect and representation to them.
Acceding to the request of the mayors, the CM allowed them to use red beacon atop their official vehicles and asked the Principal Secretary Transport to issue necessary instructions immediately in this regard. Badal also allowed to send all the official letters of government especially proceedings of various meetings and executive directions by the local government to the mayors for their perusal.
Responding to another issue for getting Rs.422 crore transferred to the corporations on account of additional excise duty on liquor, Badal also directed the Principal Secretary Finance to release this amount at the earliest. likewise, he also asked the Finance Department to immediately release their share of solid waste management to the corporations so that they could undertake cleanliness works in their respective cities under Swachh Bharat Mission.