“The Punjab Government will bring back ‘one time settlement policy’ with a new look after redressing the shortcomings of the old policy.” It was disclosed by Mr. Brahm Mohindra, Local Bodies Minister here today. He was here to attend the function pertaining to the assuming charge of office by Raman Subramaniam as new chairman of Ludhiana Improvement Trust.Speaking to the Journalists on the sideline of the function Mr. Brahm Mohindra said that there were some shortcomings in the ‘one time settlement policy’ implemented by the Punjab Government on March 5. He said now the Government has decided to bring back the policy with a new look after clearing all the loopholes of earlier policy. He said that the government had sought feedback, objections and suggestions from different departments and from the citizen of the state on the earlier policy. He said under the earlier policy only 1018 online and 138 offline applications have been received till June 4. He said because of this the government has decided to implement this policy again after taking into consideration the objections and suggestions of the citizens.
Mr. Brahm Mohindra said that the focus of the Local Bodies Department is to strengthen the fire safety measures, addressing the problem of rain water stagnation and making the policies of the department people’s friendly. He said that strict instructions have been issued to the officers to ensure that stagnated rain water be pumped off from the affected areas within 10 days whereas complete cleanliness of the whole sewerage system in the urban areas be cleaned within one month. He said that laxity in this regard would not be tolerated at any cost.The local Bodies Minister said that the fire safety system in the big cities like Ludhiana is being strengthened for swift mobility of the fire tenders in the affected areas and to attend the fire calls within few minutes. He said the Rs. 9 crore have been issued just for the uniforms of the firemen. He said that Ludhiana has 23 fire tenders at present besides this small fire tenders are been inducted into the existing fleet of fire tenders so that these can swiftly move into the narrow streets of the city to attend fire calls.Earlier in the day Mr. Raman Subramaniam assumed the charge of his office as Chairman of Ludhianan Improvement Trust in the presence of Mr. Brahm Mohindra and other galaxy of political leaders. Prominent who were present during this included Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu Cabinet Minister, Kuldeep Singh Vaid and Sanjay Talwar (both MLAs), Balkar Singh Sandhu Mayor MCL and others.