Education Minister, Punjab O.P. Soni today asked the officers of the district administration to complete the ongoing development works under various schemes in the district by the end of the current fiscal.Presiding over a meeting to review the various welfare schemes of Punjab government here at District Administrative Complex, the Minister said that providing good governance and clean administration to the people was the top priority of the state government. He said that the basic motto of organizing these district level review meetings was to ensure that the benefits of these schemes were percolated to every eligible beneficiary at grass-root level. Mr. Soni said any sort of callousness in the implementation of these social welfare schemes was totally unwarranted and undesirable.The Minister further said that as per the directions of the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh every single penny received under the budgetary provisions must be utilized for public welfare schemes by March 31. He said that pensions, Aashirwad, benefits under Food Security Scheme and others must reach people in time every month. Mr. Soni said that the state government was committed for ensuring the benefit of these schemes to every genuine beneficiary.
Taking strict cognizance of the absence of District Education Officer (Secondary) from the meeting, the Minister ordered his suspension for dereliction of duty. He said that such attitude of the officers was totally unwarranted as this meeting has been conveyed in larger public interest. Mr. Soni said that in future also if any officer/ official behave in this irresponsible manner then stern action would be taken against him.Meanwhile, the Minister was apprised that Rs 61.62 lakh has been so far spend for construction of 21 classrooms in 15 schools and 112017 students of 1481 schools were availing benefit of mid day meal scheme. He was also informed that district was leading the state in field of Health and institutional deliveries, a debt relief of Rs 103. 35 crore has been given to 12982 farmers in district, the various activities done under Tandarust Punjab Mission , jobs provided to 1384 youth under the Ghar-Ghar Rozgar Yojna, progress made by water supply and sanitation department to provide 100% water and sewerage facility under the Urban Mission Punjab and by the PWD for construction of roads, benefits given to 126471 beneficiaries under widow, old-age and handicap pension scheme besides others.
Earlier, welcoming the Minister, Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma apprised him about the ongoing schemes in the district. He assured the Minister that district administration would make all out efforts to implement these schemes in right earnest.Prominent amongst others present on the occasion included MLAs Mr. Pargat Singh, Mr. Sushil Kumar Rinku, Mr. Rajinder Beri, Chaudhary Surinder Singh and Mr. Hardev Singh Laddi, Mayor Municipal Corporation Jalandhar Mr. Jagdish Raj Raja, President of District Congress Mr. Daljit Singh Ahluwalia, Additional Deputy Commissioners Mr. Jitendra Jorwal and Mr. Jasbir Singh, Commissioner of Municipal Corporation Mr. Diperva Lakra, Chief Executive Officer Smart Office Mr. Vishesh Sarangal, Sub Divisional Magistrates Mr. Amit Kumar, Mr. Varinder Pal Singh Bajwa, Mr. Sanjiv Sharma and Ms. Navneet Kaur Bal, Assistant Commissioners Mr. Himanshu Jain and Dr. Jai Inder Singh, District Development and Panchayat Officer Mr. Ajay Kumar and others.