Punjab CM approves Rs 125 cr for overall development of Kandi, border areas

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday approved Rs 125 crore for development projects of Kandi and border areas of the state.

The Chief Minister also gave the green signal the guidelines and criteria for the execution of these development projects and schemes.

Disclosing the information, an official spokesperson said, "Of the total approved sum, Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for the overall development of the border region and Rs 25 crores for the Kandi areas."

"These funds are in addition to the ongoing schemes and programmes," he added.

Singh also gave the nod to spend 75 per cent of allocated funds on priority sectors namely health, education, water supply and sanitation and the remaining 25 per cent on other sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture and allied, rural development, and panchayats and local governments.

On the issue of realignment of Kandi canal, the Chief Minister asked the Chief Secretary to constitute a committee comprising Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tiwari, MLA from Balachaur and engineers from Water Resources Department, besides eminent experts from the field of canal design and management, to suggest ways to rectify technical flaws in the construction of canal to harness its optimum irrigation potential.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the very objective of setting up the board was to identify the problems in these areas and address them on priority.

"Paucity of funds would not be allowed to hamper the pace of development in these difficult areas, where people were grappling with several hardships, especially scarcity of potable water, fewer irrigation facilities and poor road connectivity," he said.

"Allocation would be enhanced further to ensure basic facilities of health, education, water supply, and sanitation for the people in these areas, in order to improve the quality of their life," he added.

Singh consented to get a third party audit done from an independent agency of repute to ascertain the quality of development projects.

He also directed Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa to put in place an effective mechanism for quality evaluation of development projects in these areas through such agency with proven track of fair expertise, experience and technical knowledge in handling assessment of such projects.