Civic polls: On anvil, infra plan for Patiala, Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 18

For the election-bound civic bodies in Punjab, the Local Bodies Department is coming up with an infrastructure plan for Patiala and Jalandhar municipal corporations. The plan will be announced by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh soon.

This was stated by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu at a press briefing here today. Sharing details of a comprehensive plan to boost the urban infrastructure, Sidhu said Rs1,540 crore had been sanctioned by HUDCO for the upgrade of water supply and sanitation system of all cities and towns. It involves cleaning chocked sewers, augmentation of sewer lines and completing left-out works. The treated water from the sewage treatment plants would be provided for irrigational purposes.

On the occasion, Advisor of the Local Government Department Amar Singh, Director KK Yadav and CEO of PMIDC Ajoy Sharma were also present.

He said Rs2,127 crore had been approved for the development of cities which would be released soon. He added that now was the time to execute the policies framed during the past 6 months by the department.

“In contrast, the previous regime had approved Rs2,054 crore for 122 cities out of which only Rs567 crore was released in December 2016. But then the work was stalled owing to the non-release of rest of the funds,” Sidhu said.

He said Rs139 crore and Rs125 crore had been approved for the development of Ludhiana and Amritsar, respectively, while the amount for Jalandhar and Patiala would be approved soon.

The minister said the department had come up with new rules under one-time settlement scheme in which certain property rights had been given to illegal occupants provided they paid their dues as per the collector rates. Besides, rules have been framed to fix reserved price of residential and commercial property of 28 improvement trusts.

Important decisions 

• One-time settlement scheme to recover dues of house tax or property tax 
• The Local Bodies Department has given a window of three months to enable defaulters to clear their dues; 10% rebate to those availing the chance 
• A target of generating Rs 500 crore has been set as per the proposed outdoor advertising and parking policy 
• In all, 68 fire tenders have been provided to cities and 28 more will be provided soon