Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday asked his new Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra to review the One Time Settlement (OTS) policy on the regularization of unauthorized constructions and building violations, formulated by the Department under the previous Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The Chief Minister has asked the Minister to relook the existing scheme and suggest changes, if any, to make it more people friendly and result oriented.
The directions were issued while chairing the first meeting of the Urban Renewal and Reforms Consultative Group. in response to the concerns expressed by the Corporation Mayors.
During the meeting, Patiala Mayor requested the Chief Minister to make OTS more effective and relevant to remove the discrepancies in the existing policy by taking all the stakeholders into confidence. Amritsar Mayor also urged the Local Bodies authorities to ensure that all components of the OTS policy are complied with to make the buildings safer.
Besides, the Chief Minister, with an aim to make the state’s Urban Local Bodies self-sustaining, has also ordered the Local Bodies director to formulate a comprehensive framework to give them more teeth.
Underlining the need to ensure seamless coordination among various departments involved in any public project by providing more autonomy to the ULBs, Capt Amarinder made it clear that paucity of funds would not be allowed to hamper development work.
Capt Amarinder directed immediate steps to further improve the fiscal and administrative component of all ULBs to ensure that the government benefits reach the beneficiaries on the ground.
Sounding a warning over project delays, Capt Amarinder asked the Department to issue legal notices to private players lagging behind in completion of all public projects at the earliest.
The Chief Minister also emphasized the need to develop an inbuilt mechanism to ensure timely completion and adherence to strict quality control parameters, to ensure optimal utilization of the funds allocated for the projects.
Expressing satisfaction at the progress under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) Scheme, the Chief Minister said that he would soon write to the Union Government to bring three more cities of Punjab in its ambit.
He also asked the Department to come up with benchmarking of all major cities of Punjab, population-density wise, in comparison with other national cities of matching population, to ensure that a strong case is put before the Centre to allocate adequate funds for their overall development.