Aiming to accelerate the pace of development works, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal today taken in principal decision to spend Rs. 3500 crore on provisioning of 100 percent sewerage, water supply, streets and other amenities under 'urban mission' strengthening of urban infrastructure in the state.Presiding over a high level meeting here today to review the status of urban projects, Deputy Chief Minister said the state government would develop a world class infrastructure in the towns and cities and to make them swachh cities.He also elaborated that to give practical shape to the state urban mission, Rs. 1500 crore have been released to the department of local government and issued directions to release another installment of the same amount. He asked the local bodies department to accord priority on development and strengthening of roads and streets in the towns where sewerage and water supply works have been completed. He gave 4 months time frame for the works to be completed.
Making an important announcement, he said the pre-audit of development projects under urban mission should not hamper the pace of work at any cost and asked the Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to streamline and supervise their functioning. He also directed the concerned department that the payments to audit companies should be made in accordance with the proportion of work done. Cautioning against laxity, he said no project of progressive and developmental nature should be made to suffer due to delay in third party audit. He asked the Chief Secretary and Secretary Local Government to ensure that.Firmly driving home his point about executing the projects on war footing, Mr. Badal said any deficiency found in the completion of development works would not be tolerated. It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab Government is spending Rs. 10,000 crore on the provisioning and strengthening of development projects in both urban and rural missions.On the occasion, Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal, Secretary Power A. Venu Prasad, Secretary Local Government Vikas Partap, Principal Secretary to Deputy CM P.S. Aujla, CEO Punjab Sewerage Board D.K. Tewari, Special Principal Secretaries to Deputy CM Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Rahul Tewari and Ajay Mahajan were also present.