Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, who has completed one year of his tenure here on Wednesday, said that the last one year saw Chandigarh achieving several prominent landmarks, which would enrich the lives of many for years to come.
Badnore, while talking to the editors at an informal interaction at Hotel Mountview here said, “With hard work and positive approach, we plan to take Chandigarh to the next level, but there are many concerns and challenges that we need to face and overcome.”
Badnore completed one year in the Governor’s office on August 22. Sharing his achievements during last one tenure, the UT Administrator said that Chandigarh became the the first UT/State to be declared as Kerosene Free and the first State/UT where the food subsidy is 100 per cent DBT based on Aadhaar.
Chandigarh has achieved 103 per cent Aadhaar enrollment in the current year and ranks first among UTs and second among all States with respect to implementation of Aadhaar linked birth registration in all the hospitals of the city, said he.
Badnore said that the city has been leading the list of solar cities by installing Rooftop Solar Plants of overall capacity of 11.32 MW.
Among other initiatives, Annapurna Akshaypatra Yojana” has been initiated under which 3,000 food packets are being distributed to laborers on a daily basis in the city, Kalam Express — home based educational-cum-rehabilitation project was introduced for children with multiple disabilities, said he.
Expressing satisfaction over the momentum of work during his tenure, Punjab Governor said, “I started my journey with a huge responsibility of taking this “City Beautiful” to new heights. With hard work and positive approach,
we plan to take Chandigarh to the next level now.”
The UT Administration is concerned about the conservation and management of Sukhna lake and working in this regard, he said. Commenting on smart city project, he said that we are keen to tie up with institutions having expertise in urbanisation i.e. ISB Mohali, (IIHS) Indian Institute of Human Settlements Bengaluru and so on. The Administration has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CII and we are actively in touch with other such institutions and associations like FICCI, PHD Chamber of Commerce etc, said the UT Administrator.
On the issue of water supply, Badnore said that the Administration is concerned about improving quantity and quality of water supply to Chandigarh and have initiated Kajauli project for providing 24X7 water supply to the citizens of Chandigarh.
About improvement of healthcare services in Chandigarh, the Governor said that the Centre has approved three projects- Advanced Mother and Child Centre, Advanced Neurosciences Centre, PGI satellite centre worth Rs 1,475 crore for the region’s premier medical and research institution. Besides this, a state of the art super specialty hospital, trauma centre, mother and child hospital, sports injury centre are also proposed to be set up in GMCH-32, he informed.
We are also proposing to convert PEC University of Technology into an IIT. A proposal in this regard has already been sent to the Union Government, added he.