To accelerate pace of development works in Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Thursday took in principal decision to
spend Rs 3,500 crore under ‘Urban Mission’.
The amount would be spend to provide 100 per cent sewerage, water supply, streets and other amenities for strengthening urban infrastructure across the State.
Presiding over a meeting to review the status of urban projects, Sukhbir said that the state government would develop a world class infrastructure in the towns and cities and to make them “swachh” (clean) cities.
He also elaborated that to give practical shape to the state urban mission, Rs 1,500 crore have been released to the Department of local Government and issued directions to release another instalment of the same amount.
Sukhbir asked the local Bodies Department to accord priority on development and strengthening of roads and streets in the towns where sewerage and water supply works have been completed. He gave four months’ time-frame for the works to be completed.
Making an important announcement, Sukhbir said that pre-audit of development projects under Urban Mission should not hamper the pace of work at any cost. He asked the State Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to streamline and supervise their functioning.
He also directed the concerned department that the payments to audit companies should be made in accordance with the proportion of work done.
Cautioning against laxity, he said that no project of progressive and developmental nature should be made to suffer due to delay in third party audit. He asked the Chief Secretary and Secretary local Government to ensure the same.
Firmly driving home his point about executing the projects on war footing, Sukhbir said that any deficiency found in the completion of development works would not be tolerated.
It is pertinent to mention that the Punjab Government is spending Rs 10,000 crore on the provisioning and strengthening of development projects in both urban and rural missions.