The Pioneer 19.08.2010
Punjab to decentralise urbanisation process
PNS | Chandigarh
In a bid to decentralise the process of urban development, Punjab Government has decided to extend the jurisdiction of six developmental authorities of Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda to cover the entire State.
This was disclosed here by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a media interaction. Badal said that Greater Mohali Area Development Authority would now also look after Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Rajpura in the Patiala district besides Mohali.
Likewise, the jurisdiction of Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority had been extended to Moga, Nawanshahr, Ferozepur and Phillaur in Jalandhar district. Jalandhar Development Authority would cover Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala. Amritsar Development Authority would cover Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran, Patiala Development Authority would encompass Patiala, Sangrur and Barnala and Bathinda Development Authority would now have jurisdiction over Mansa, Muktsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur apart from Bathinda.
Badal further said that these authorities would now provide the services to the public at the local level for the change of land use, licensing of colonies, completion certificates, besides the disposal of grievances of plot holders and regulating process of urban development in the respective areas.
Decentralisation of development authorities would also enable the concerned officers to focus their attention on the integrated growth of the areas in a cohesive manner, earlier it was difficult for officers at Chandigarh to take care the entire State.
On the issue of direct recruitment in various departments, Chief Minister Badal informed that the State Government had launched a massive recruitment drive to give direct employment to 63,552 persons, out of which 44,474 persons had been recruited so far and 18,918 were in the process of recruitment.
Badal said that Maharaja Ranjit Singh Institute of Military Training at Mohali and Maritime Academy near Ropar would be soon made functional to provide tremendous job opportunities to the youth in the defence services, Merchant Navy and other shipping companies.
Chief Minister also apprised the media persons that the State Government had chalked out a detailed programme to provide employable skills to nearly 67,500 youth within a year by involving the State Technical Education Department (35,000), PTU and private engineering colleges (17500), Guru Nanak Dev University (5,000) and Punjabi University Patiala (10000).
On cleaning of rivers, water supply and sewerage project, the Chief Minister said that the State Government had embarked upon an ambitious plan to cover 44 towns at a cost of Rs 2,055 crore.
The objective of the entire project was to check the pollution caused by the discharge of untreated sewage of the cities, villages and industrial waste in Sutlej, Beas and Ghaggar rivers.
An amount of Rs 1,342 crore had been sanctioned for the execution of works in the 18 towns in the first phase and the remaining 26 towns would be taken up at a cost of Rs 713 crore in the next phase. He said that the work on the first phase of the project would be completed by November 2011.
Referring to the steps taken by the State Government to check the menace of industrial pollution, the Chief Minister said that Rs 370 crore would be spent on 35 large and medium scale and 425 small scale polluting industries to prevent them from discharging their untreated waste water and effluents in the rivers by November 30, 2011.
