Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat directed departmental officials and all District Magistrates to accord top priority to sanitation in urban areas. He also told officials that instead of moving in four-wheelers they should walk or use two-wheelers to visit crowded areas to check sanitation, traffic and other aspects for coming up with practical and effective solutions to these issues. Necessary measures should be taken for effective execution of various Central Government schemes including Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities mission and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana among others.
Stressing on cleanliness, Rawat said that the responsibility of officials and supervisors connected to the sanitation programme should be fixed. If needed their performance should be linked to their character roll. Considering the tourism activity in the state, visiting tourists should return home with a good impression of the state, he said, while adding that cleanliness is the top priority for the public in urban areas. “What ever work you do, even if you do good work, it is all futile if results are not visible on the ground,” he said. The problems of garbage, water logging and potholes on roads have to be resolved completely. A system should be made for identifying and immediately addressing the problems of the public. The anti-encroachment campaign should be undertaken without any partiality or pressure. Regarding the smart city project, the CM said that the top four-five activities under the project should be identified and the whole focus should be centered on these. A proposal should be drafted if there is need for expanding the area fixed earlier for the project. The Urban Development ministry joint secretary Kunal Sharma said that the smart city company has flexibility and that valid proposals will definitely be considered.
Further, the CM said that making of permanent ducts on all main roads should be considered to prevent the damage resulting from roads being dug up by various departments for laying potable water pipelines, sewer lines, telephone cables and other tasks. He directed the chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh to hold detailed deliberations on this subject. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) he told officials to make homes permissible for 1.49 lakh beneficiaries by March 2019.
Work has to be done to fulfil the commitment of the prime minister to provide housing for all by 2022. Ammendment will be made to the current housing policy if some provision hampers work in this direction. Regarding banks rejecting applications under the credit linked subsidy scheme due to minor issues, Rawat said that banks should adopt a sensitive approach. The chief secretary should raise this issue in the state level bankers committee and district magistrates should do the same in the district level bankers committee meeting. The district magistrate will conduct random checks of the rejected applications.
Banks should be encouraged to play a proactive role in this important campaign, added the CM. Reviewing AMRUT, he told officials to draft a proposal to be given to the Union Government for including more cities in the mission. Currently, Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani, Roorkee, Rudrapur, Kashipur and Nainital are included in this mission.
Officials informed that of the 138 projects costing Rs 593 crore, 80 detailed project reports had been approved with work in progress on these.
State Urban Development and Housing minister Madan Kaushik, secretaries RK Sudhanshu, Nitesh Jha, Dilip Javalkar and all district magistrate through video conferencing were also present in the meeting.