Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday okayed a warehousing facility for non-agriculture purposes on the Banur-Tepla Road in Patiala district, to boost industrial development in the region, with the model to be subsequently replicated across the state.The Chief Minister also asked the Housing and Urban Development department to expedite handing over possession of land under the housing scheme for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the state.The directions were issued during the 38th meeting of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning & Development Board here.The Chief Minister directed ACS Housing and Urban Development to ensure that all developers and colonizers immediately hand over possession of the requisite land already earmarked in their layout plans to the concerned Urban Development authorities for the purpose of EWS scheme.Captain Amarinder also gave the nod to initiate the process for necessary amendments in the Unified Zoning Regulations under Section 76 of Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995. The move would help augment investments in trade and commercial activities, giving the much needed impetus to the warehousing sector besides generating employment opportunities for youth.With this decision, the state government has met a long-pending demand of industrialists and traders for establishment of warehouses to store different types of goods and commodities in view of their huge potential and demand.On the occasion, the Chief Minister released a compendium related to various policies and guidelines for urban development, prepared by the department of Housing and Urban Development. This would also be made available on the department’s website shortly. The aim of this compendium is to educate and provide basic information to the people regarding several pathbreaking initiatives and policy interventions of the incumbent government for the prompt redressal of their grievances.
Taking part in the deliberations, Additional Chief Secretary (Housing and Urban Development) Vini Mahajan said a notification, to develop industrial area adjacent to the already existing industrial zone in Banur had been issued in the light of decision taken during the last Board meeting. She further informed the Chief Minister that the remaining area would also be assessed for the purpose of further industrial development.The Board approved the master plan for Dasua for its notification under the provision of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning & Development Act, 1995.The revised master plan for Kharar was also placed before the Board, which directed the Town & Country Planning Department to bring it before the think tank committee constituted under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner, SAS Nagar (Mohali), for making desired changes in the draft document after receiving suggestions and objections from the aforesaid committee and general public. The same would be placed before the next meeting of the Board.The meeting was informed that the Town and Country Planning department had so far finalized and notified 100 master plans in the state, of which 25 plans were based on GIS and Revenue. Master plans for nearly 50 small towns were being under preparation and would be notified soon.Prominent amongst others present in the meeting were Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra, Housing and Urban Development Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, PWD and School Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Special Chief Secretary Taxation MP Singh, Financial Commissioner Revenue Kalpana Mittal Baruah, ACS Housing and Urban Development Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh, Deputy Commissioner Patiala Kumar Amit, Chief Administrator GMADA, PUDA and Director Town and Country Planning Dharamvir Gupta, Chief Administrator Patiala Development Authority Surbhi Malik, CA Jalandhar Development Authority Jitendra Jorwal, Mayor Patiala Corporation Sanjeev Bittu Sharma, Commissioner Municipal Corporation Patiala Gurpreet Singh Khaira and Chief Town and Country Planner Gurpreet Singh, Malwinder Singh, the younger brother of Chief Minister also attended the meeting as a special invitee.