Chandigarh, February 17, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
Putting the issue of sanitation high on agenda Mr. Brahm Mohindra, Local Bodies Minister Punjab today set 15 days deadline for all the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to make the cities ‘Garbage free’ by ensuring 100 percent lifting of garbage heaps from every nook and corner of the cities.
Likewise the Minister directed the authorities at the ULBs to check the menace of the stray cattle by bringing other stakeholders, social organization and NGOs on board. He was presiding over a high level review meeting of the department at Municipal Bhawan Sector 35 Chandigarh.
Disclosing this official spokesperson of the Local Bodies Department said that the meeting was specially attended by Mr. Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Minister of Food Supplies & Consumer Affairs. Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary of the Local Bodies department, Mr. Ajoy Sharma, CEO, PMIDC, Mayors of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala, Commissioners of Municipal Corporations, CEOs of Smart Cities were present in the meeting.
Mr. Brahm Mohindra while setting the agenda of the meeting directed all the Mayors and commissioners to lift every bit of garbage from the jurisdiction of the cities. He set 15 days deadline for them to make cites ‘Garbage Free’.
He assured them full support from the government in this pious work but demanded reciprocal commitment from them to complete this task within 15 days. He said that the UBLs who would achieve this target in lesser time would be rewarded by the State Government in befitting manner whereas the authorities at those ULBs who would fail to execute the task in stipulated time would have to face music.
The Local Bodies Minister while 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.
He said that by doing so the ULBs could generate adequate revenue at their end. 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 advertisement at designated places of the ULBs which would garner bountiful revenue for them.
Mr. Brahm 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 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 the citizens so that they coordinate with the government by paying taxes and fee in time for executing welfare schemes for them.
“ In a welfare state, the onus of building the image of the Government lies on the work force who execute the polices of the government at grass root level, in the same breath the ULBs in the urban areas share big chunk of responsibility in providing civic amenities to the citizen in time bound manner.”
With this remark the Local Bodies Minister directed the ULBs to float the tenders of all the pending development works till March 31, 2020 and ensure the execution of the work within in stipulated time frame. He instructed the officers to ensure the quality of work in terms of material used, which can not 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 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.
