Punjab government intends to make all cities in the state open defecation free (ODF) by June 2018. As of now 46 urban local bodies have been declared ODF till 31st December, 2017 and 100 more cities would be ODF by 31st March, 2018 and all the cities would be ridden of the menace by 30th June, the local government minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu said on Wednesday.
The minister said e-governance project aimed at providing better facilities to the people living the urban centres would be kickstarted in April, 2018 and would come to fruition in December, 2018.
The work related to the passing of online maps would be started in this month itself and would be completed by September, 2018.
Sidhusaid the department has decided to go in for the forensic audit in order to unearth the corrupt practices during the previous eras besides instilling a sense of accountability in the urban local bodies.
In the first phase, the audit would be carried out in the big corporation cities of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Ludhiana and their Improvement Trusts besides 3 Municipalities of Kharar, Zirakpur and Rajpura and completed by September, 2018.
The minister said that as a firm step towards women empowerment 50 percent reservation was granted to women in all the municipal corporations, municipal councils and the panchayats.
This reservation was implemented in the recently concluded elections to the three corporations and 29 municipalities.
Regarding the Bus Rapid Transport System project, the minister said that Rs 495 Crore have been released for the project in Amritsar and 3 corridors within the radius of 31 KM would come up this year.
Sidhu said Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar are covered under smart city and Union government has sanctioned Rs 350 Crore for these cities in which the Punjab component would be Rs 50 crore.
He also said that a detailed programme has been chalked out to provide clean drinking water to the urban population and providing canal water which would be given to the corporation cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala with Rs 1708 Crore, Rs 2874Crore, Rs 2000 Crore and Rs 7171 Crore earmarked respectively.
Of Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Punjab, 64 of the kind were closed in the state of which 40 would be operationalised soon and the farming community would be provided water for the irrigational purposes.