Punjab cabinet approves Malerkotla as 23rd district

CHANDIGARH: Giving formal approval to creation of Malerkotla as the 23rd district of the state, the Punjab cabinet on Wednesday also cleared upgrading of Amargarh sub-tehsil, which was a part of Malerkotla subdivision, as subdivision or tehsil. With this, Malerkotla district will now have three subdivisions - Malerkotla, Ahmedgarh and Amargarh. As many as 192 villages, 62 patwar circles and 6 Kanungo circles will be included in Malerkotla district.
The cabinet authorised chief minister Amarinder Singh to approve new posts for offices of 12 departments, including police, rural development and panchayats, social justice and minorities, agriculture and farmer welfare, social security and women and child development, health, education (primary and secondary), social security, employment generation, industry and commerce, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs and finance.
Amarinder had on Eidul-Fitr, May 14, announced the decision to make Malerkotla a full-fledged district, fulfilling a long-standing demand of the local people.
The cabinet also allowed the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for operating and maintaining large, multi-village schemes to sustain the supply of potable water to rural areas. This will be a Punjab Rural Water (Utility) Company under the water supply and sanitation department. The cabinet approved opening an account in the name of this SPV, with a seed money of Rs 25 crore, 64% from the World Bank funds and 36% from the state budget, for the first five years. This will meet the revenue shortfall, if any.
The cabinet also authorised the CM as chairperson of the state water supply and sanitation mission to approve on behalf of the council of ministers any amendment in the structure, role, responsibilities, and funding pattern of the SPV. The water supply and sanitation department is executing five multi-village surface water supply projects for 612 villages of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts, besides another project to cover 408 villages in fluoride-affected blocks of Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.
Another project to cover 39 villages of Rupnagar district’s Nurpurbedi block afftecte by iron and arsenic poisoning started in 2019. In January, construction giant L&T completed a Moga project based on design, build operate and transfer (DBOT) model and worth Rs 218.56 crore to benefit 85 villages and 3.64 lakh people.