Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra offers sweets to Raman Balasubramiam as the latter takes charge as chairman of Ludhiana Improvement Trust. (Express photo by Gurmeet Singh)Punjab local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra Saturday said that he has set a deadline of 10 days for the civic bodies in state to complete cleaning of sewers, drains and other pipelines to control waterlogging.
He said that strict instructions have been issued to ensure that stagnant rain water is pumped out from the affected areas. All cities in state will soon be covered under storm water sewage system, he added.
Mohindra, who was in city to preside over the joining of new chairman of Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) Raman Balasubramaniam, further said that he has asked the officials to complete the cleanliness works and removal of garbage in the urban areas within one month.
The minister said that they will soon reintroduce the one-time settlement policy for illegal buildings.
“The Punjab government will bring back the ‘one time settlement policy’ for illegal buildings after redressing the shortcomings of the old policy,” he said.
He said that the government had sought feedback, objections and suggestions from different departments and from the citizen of the state on the earlier policy, introduced on March 5. Under the earlier policy, only 1018 online and 138 offline applications were received till June 4, he said adding that because of this, the government has decided to reintroduce the policy after taking into consideration the objections and suggestions of the citizens.
The minister said that the fire safety system in big cities such as Ludhiana was being strengthened for swift mobility of the fire tenders in the affected areas and to attend the calls within few minutes.
He said Rs 9 crore have been issued for the uniforms of the firemen. Ludhiana has 23 fire tenders at present and smaller fire tenders are been inducted into the existing fleet so that they could swiftly move into the narrow streets of the city.
Even as Mohindra made tall claims about urban local bodies working to tackle waterlogging, many areas in the city remained inundated during his visit after heavy rainfall Saturday morning.
Prior to his visit, the gullies near the LIT office were being cleaned with a machine and manually to clear the accumulated water whereas other areas including posh ones like Aggar Nagar, Sarabha Nagar, BRS Nagar, and Ferozepur road remained waterlogged.
