Chandigarh, September 13:
To fulfill the dream of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to make Rangla Punjab, the rural development department will develop 500 smart villages in the state. Sharing this information during a press conference after a meeting with Block Development and pancahayt Officers from across the state here today, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that under this smart village project at least 5 villages of each constituency will be selected which will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities of health, education, sports, drinking water and sanitation etc besides this small IT units will be established in these villages to provide employment to the youth in the IT sector.
Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that no name or board of any political leader will be displayed on the boards at the place of development works of smart villages, but the experts would contribute to the development of these villages and their names will be highlighted in the villages at special sites.
Rural Development Minister said that today the block development and panchayat officers were handed over a 52-point development agenda to change the face of the villages, which will be time-bound and accountability will be fixed for implementation of this agenda.
Kuldeep Dhaliwal issued directions to the district development and panchayat officers and said that all pending cases in their courts should be settled on the basis of merit by December 31 without any bias. It is to be mentioned that the District Development and Panchayat Officer has to dispose of the case within 3 months but a lot of pendency has been found therefore these directions have been issued.
Implementing another important decision, the Rural Development Minister announced that it was observed that some officers make wrong decisions just few days before their retirement or some officers at the time of transfers. But from now onwards action will be taken against the officer who has done something wrong even if he has retired.
Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the state government’s campaign to remove illegal encroachment from panchayat lands, which was stopped for some time due to paddy crop in the fields, will be started again from October 1.
The rural development minister also announced the establishment of a media cell by the rural development department to project the real picture of the development work done in the villages, block level officers will send reports, photos and videos of the block level development work to this cell.
Sharing important information, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the state government will launch a large-scale campaign to stop stubble burning under this campaign, and the Rural Development Department will aware the people at the village level about the ill effects of stubble burning.
