Punjab Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal today called on the Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Mr Kamal Nath at his office here today, to update him on the recent reforms initiated by the state government to put the process of urbanization on fast track.
Briefing the Union Minister, Mr Badal informed that the state government had already implemented the decisions to levy Property Tax besides the enactment of the Rent Control Act. Likewise the Public Private Partnership policy for recovery of Operation and Maintenance of charges of water supply and sewerage system has also been framed and was under the active consideration of Cabinet Sub Committee. He also mentioned that the state government had already a created a dedicated a Municipal Service Cadre, which was mandatory to seek Financial grants under JNNURM. Mr Badal urged the Union Minister to immediately release the pending funds to the tune of nearly Rs 108 crore under JNNURM so as to expedite the various Urban Development oriented projects across the state. Appreciating the efforts initiated by the state government, Mr Kamal Nath assured the Chief Minister that Punjab would be accorded top priority in the centrally sponsored schemes focused on the Housing and Urban Development. He asked the Chief Minister to speed up the Metro Rail project at Ludhiana to decongest the traffic so that this industrial hub could be further developed to boost investment prospects there especially from the NRI investors. Mr Nath also impressed the Chief Minister to come up with Mono Rail projects for other major cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Patiala and SAS Nagar (Mohali) to provide an alternative and efficient Public Transport system to reduce the traffic influx in these cities. He asked the Local Government department of the state to get the Detailed Project Reports ready from the internationally acclaimed experts in the field of Mono Rail by floating global tenders as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had adequate funds for Mono Rail projects. Prominent amongst other present in the meeting included Union Minister for state Mrs Deepa Dass Munshi, Principal Secretary Local Government Mr Suresh Kumar and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Mr SK Sandhu.