'Slum-free' project to be launched in Abohar soon

Our Correspondent

Abohar, January 2

Chief Minister”s slum development programme — ”Basera” may be launched on his first visit to Abohar during the present term, which is expected next week.

The programme envisages a “slum-free Punjab”, where every citizen has access to all basic civic amenities.

Slum dwellers and specified categories of people, who are in occupation of small parcels of agrarian land through inheritance, will be eligible for land ownership rights with the project. The government had already given approved the Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020.

During an informal conversation with the media recently, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Abhijeet Kaplish said the programme was yet to be finalised, but the MC had completed its survey in slum areas.

Kaplish said Abohar was to be developed as a model city. “Abohar”s sanitation system was in a bad shape, so more workers were recruited and the result is visible. There was a dire need of tippers for collecting garbage in the city. Today, 25 tippers were flagged off,” he said.

Agreeing that infrastructure needs to be raised to carry development works, he said state-of-the-art machines had been procured at Rs 2.5 crore. A traffic map would be prepared soon, he said.

About mobilising financial resources, he said the corporation had sent notices to 500 defaulting property tax payers and a recovery campaign was going on. The MC had also launched a drive to recover pending arrears of sewerage and water bills. Illegal water and sewerage connections were being detected in a survey and action would be taken against them, Kaplish said. Complaints about dirty pipe water supply in Nai Abadi would be addressed, he said.