To make Punjab’s cities ‘garbage-free’ by ensuring 100 per cent lifting of garbage heaps from every nook and corner of the cities, Punjab Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra on Monday set 15 days deadline for all the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
The Minister also directed the ULB authorities to check the menace of stray cattle by bringing other stakeholders, social organisation and NGOs on board.
The directions by the Minister came while he was presiding over a high-level review meeting of the Department.
Mohindra directed all the Mayors and Municipal Commissioners to lift every bit of garbage from the jurisdiction of the cities, and set a 15-day deadline for them to make cites ‘garbage-free’.
At the same time, he assured them full support from the Government in this work but demanded a reciprocal commitment from them to complete this task within 15 days.
“The UBLs, who would achieve this target in lesser time, would be rewarded by the State Government in a befitting manner whereas the authorities at those ULBs, who would fail to execute the task in the stipulated time, would have to face the music,” said the Minister.
The Local Bodies Minister, highlighting the virtues of ‘one time settlement policy’ for the recovery of arrears of water and sewerage charges in the Urban Local bodies, which has recently been notified by the department, called upon the various authorities at the ULBs to launch aggressive awareness campaign to sensitize the citizen to urge them to pay their outstanding amount.“By doing so, the ULBs could generate adequate revenue at their end,” he said.
Similarly, the Minister asked them to realize the pending revenue from the building department. The Minister asked them to plug the gap in collecting the property tax by making a point that in the recent past around one lakh new electricity connections were given in the urban area of the State but the estimation of property tax was not increased in that proportion.
He directed the ULBs to immediately float the tenders for putting up an advertisement at designated places of the ULBs which would garner bountiful revenue for them.
Mohindra also gave a clarion call to the ULBs to check the stray cattle menace which is posing serious socio-economic danger before the civilized society and daily claiming innocent lives across the State.
He directed the officers at ULBs to personally visit the gaushalas in their districts and to make an accurate inventory of the stray cattle housed therein. He said that the government is providing Rs 32 per cattle as maintenance charges to the gaushalas as per the headcount of stray cattle providing by the management of the gaushalas, so the headcount of cattle must be crosschecked by the officers of the ULBs.
The Minister said that illegal constructions in the cities must be checked and it should be ensured that fee should be paid for every new construction as per the Government policy.
The Minister asked the ULBs to make the norms easy for the benefit of citizens so that they coordinate with the Government by paying taxes and fee in time for executing welfare schemes for them.
Saying that the ULBs share a big chunk of responsibility in providing civic amenities to the citizen in a time-bound manner, the Minister directed the ULBs to float tenders of all pending development works till March 31, 2020, and ensure execution of work within the stipulated time frame.
He instructed the officers to ensure the quality of work in terms of material used, which cannot be compromised at any cost.
Addressing to the problem of delay in getting the approval of development works, the Minister asked all the ULBs for e-submission of all the resolutions using an online portal. At the same time, 10 days deadline was fixed for the officers at the head office for giving technical approval and financial approval.