CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday directed the Local Government department to expedite work on the flagship Basera project to achieve the target of giving proprietary rights to 10,000 slum households by September 2021.
Reviewing the functioning of the Local Government department during a virtual meeting, the chief minister asked the officials to fast-track all major projects under state and central government schemes to ensure their completion and commissioning by December this year, according to an official statement here.
Under the Basera scheme, 196 slums had been identified and 25,850 households surveyed, he pointed out and called for urgent completion of the work of transfer of proprietary rights to 10,000 households in the next four months.
Under this scheme, proprietary rights are granted to every household occupying state government land in a slum in any urban area.
He also directed the department to ensure completion of 97,598 sanctioned houses under the PM Awas Yojana at the earliest.
Referring to unutilized funds under AMRUT, Smart City and some other schemes, the chief minister stressed the need to complete the projects at the earliest, while underlining the importance of immediate steps to initiate new sanctioned works also on priority.
Terming the ‘Budha Nullah’ scheme a key project for the state, he emphasized the need for ensuring proper and timely completion, and asked the department to complete certain phases by December 2021.
Singh underscored the importance of bringing Punjab in top-ranked states in terms of cleanliness and door-to-door collection under the Swachh Bharat Mission, while directing the department to expedite the various Surface Water Projects too.
Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra apprised the chief minister of the progress on various projects, and assured of their timely completion.
Secretary of Local Government department and CEO of Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation Ajoy Sharma informed the meeting that Rs 673.88 crore has been spent during 2018-19 on schemes such as Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission.
Rs 1,092.27 crore (2019-20) and Rs 1,307.99 crore (2020-21) had been spent on these schemes, besides a projected expenditure of Rs 3,602.5 crore for 2021-22, he said.