Punjab govt to give additional powers to mayors

Chandigarh, July 22

The Punjab government has decided to give additional powers to the mayors of 10 municipal corporations to accelerate the pace of ongoing projects and complete all the development works within a stipulated time frame.

This was stated by Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra during a meeting held with the mayors here on Monday.

In a statement, Mohindra said it had been brought to his notice that work on some crucial projects had come to a standstill for want for approvals from the different government bodies.

“This procedural defect has caused unaccounted damage to the development projects,” he said.

With a view to remove this bottleneck, the Department of Local Government has mooted a proposal to strengthen the mayors of 10 municipal corporations with more powers to enable them to take decision and to complete the development projects in a stipulated time frame, the minister said.

During the meeting, Mohindra said he had already discussed the matter with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and advocated the need to provide more powers to the mayors to take decisions to execute the work without any handicap.

The minister said he had issued instructions to A Venu Prasad, secretary of the local government department, to rationalise the categories of subjects that should be decided at the state government level or at the municipal corporation level.

After redressing the shortcomings of the old policy regarding illegal buildings, Mohindra said the Punjab government would soon bring back an ‘one-time settlement policy’  He said the government had sought feedback, objections and suggestions from different departments and from the citizens of the state on the earlier policy.

Highlighting the need of permanent placement of police force at disposal of the municipal corporations, the mayors said they had to face problems in getting police force from the district administration while removing the illegal encroachments. — PTI