Capt Amarinder launches slew of welfare schemes

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 7

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday launched a slew of welfare projects, including free sanitary pads for high school and college girl students in the state, a press release by the state government read.

The Chief Minister further powered the state’s digital leap with the roll-out of a Rs 75.64 crore Smart Metering project and an ‘e-Daakhil’ portal for e-filing of consumer complaints.

The youth and the girl child have also been earmarked as the beneficiaries of the two other schemes launched virtually by the Capt Amarinder, dedicated the month of January to the girl child as ‘Dheeyan di Lohri’ and also paved the way for distribution of 2,500 sports kits to promote health awareness and sports culture among youngsters.

DHEEYIAN DI LOHRI

Launching ‘Dheeiyan Di Lohri’, the Chief Minister, in a symbolic gesture, blessed five girl children, along with their mothers, with a ‘shagun’ of Rs 5,100 and baby kits for each.

Under the special scheme, a series of events will be held every day across districts, beginning with Mohali district, through the month to mark the occasion of Lohri, which will see congratulatory letters penned and signed by the Chief Minister being handed over to the parents of more than 1.5 lakh girls celebrating their first Lohri this year.

Acceding to the demand of PPCC President Sunil Jakhar, the Chief Minister also announced free sanitary pads to all girl students of high schools and colleges besides those residing in rural areas, especially the slums across the state.

Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Aruna Chaudhary said the concluding event of the ‘Dheeiyan di Lohri’ month would be marked by grand celebrations during a state-level function at Ferozepur, where the parents and grandparents of newborn girls would be honoured.

BASERA FOR SLUM DWELLERS

With the launch of the BASERA programme, as many as 2,816 slum dwellers in 10 slums of Patiala, Bathinda, Fazilka and Moga districts will get proprietary rights in the first phase. Those living in three slums of Moga will be granted their rights by shifting them to a separate land in Municipal Corporation at Moga Jeet Singh.

Terming this initiative as a milestone step towards inclusive urban development and planning of the state government, Captain Amarinder said he had been nurturing this dream for the past 52 years of his political career.

Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra said Punjab was the first state in the country to launch the Chief Minister’s Slum Development Programme ‘BASERA’ to confer proprietary rights to every slum household occupying state government land in a slum in any urban area on the date of notification of the Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020.

SMART POWER METERS

Launching the Rs. 75.64 crore three-phase Smart Metering project, the Chief Minister said the consumer-friendly scheme would help reduce human error in manual reading through automatic uploading of data.

“From January 2021 to December 2021, a total of 96,000 meters will be installed across the state by the PSPCL under the project, which will also help to curb the malpractice of reading concealment/theft of electricity and improve the reading/billing efficiency and quality,” he said.

E-DAAKHIL FOR CONSUMERS

The Chief Minister said the new e-Daakhil portal would help consumers safeguard their rights.

“It will provide them with an effective mechanism to protect them from exploitation at the hands of traders and will facilitate them in approaching consumer courts with ease,” he said while launching the portal.

Created to enable e-filling of consumer complaints in accordance with the new Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which envisages filling of consumer dispute electronically to Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, the portal will facilitate online filing of complaints by citizens/advocates.

CRICKET KITS FOR YOUTH

Launching the scheme for distribution of 2,500 sports/cricket kits, through community participation especially of the Ludhiana industry, the Chief Minister said it would help promote health awareness and sports culture.

It would motivate youth to take up sports in a big way, thus enabling the state to regain its lost glory in the arena of sports both at national and international levels, he said.