Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today reviewed the progress of all the development projects and welfare schemes taken up with the GoI, with the concerned administrative secretaries to ensure their timely and effective implementation. Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said that Mr. Badal was updated about the latest development and the progress made so far by the administrative secretaries related to the projects and schemes forwarded to the Centre for its approval in a high level meeting here at CMO this morning.
Badal directed the Chief Secretary to oversee the pace of progress made in this behalf after having separate meetings with the secretaries and their heads of the departments so as to ensure the clearance of the projects from the Union government on the priority. The Chief Minister also offered his personal intervention in getting the issues stuck up at Union Ministries level resolved expeditiously. He asked the officers to bring any sort of hardship faced by them in getting the things moved at faster pace at Centre, in the knowledge of the team of officers attached with him in CMO for quick resolution instead of getting them lingered at their own level. He asked the administrative secretaries to frequently visit the concerned Ministries and their offices in Delhi to get the sanctions/approvals swiftly. Mr. Badal mentioned that he had personally met various Union Ministers recently and raised several issues with them regarding the development and prosperity of the state which must be followed up by all the administrative secretaries meticulously so as to ensure prompt clearance till its logical end.
The Chief Minister also asked the officers to be regular in touch with their counterparts in the Union Ministries through developing a personal rapport in the larger public interest besides getting long pending issues resolved at the earliest to hasten the pace of development in the state. He also directed the administrative secretaries to either visit personally or send their heads of the departments to the Union Ministries for prompt resolution of the pending issues instead of sending their junior officers in order to curtail inordinate procedural delay.The Chief Minister also asked the officers to maintain punctuality and discipline in the offices from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm from Monday to Thursday and reserve Friday for the field visits. He asked the Chief Secretary to ensure every officer must plan tour in advance in the field to address the issues on the spot in consultation with district administration which were unnecessarily delayed for the want of coordination. He said that in future Friday would be a meeting free day in the CMO to enable the officers to visit in the field. He also asked the officers to keep close liaison at the grass roots level to feel the pulse of the people and redress their grievances on the spot. This would ensure better coordination in the delivery system of citizen centric services on one hand besides improving governance on the other.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary assured Mr. Badal that he would personally ensure a mechanism in place to have integrated and coordinated approach between the CMO and the different administrative departments to keep him regularly updated on the status of development projects and welfare schemes taken up with the Centre.Prominent amongst other who were present in the meeting included Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary to CM Mr. SK Sandhu, Special Principal Secretaries to CM Mr. KJS Cheema, Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar and Mr. Ajoy Sharma besides all the Financial Commissioners, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries attended the meeting.