Punjab CM directs ministers to draw action plan

With his government completing its half-term, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday directed his ministers to formulate a comprehensive action plan for their respective departments and engage more closely with legislators to give further impetus to the development work in their regions.

The chief minister and his Council of Ministers discussed the progress made by the government over the past 30 months, and the way forward, as they geared up to take the state's development plans forward, an official statement said here.

Singh expressed satisfaction over the work done so far by all the departments, despite the severe financial crunch faced by his government as a result of the gross mismanagement of the state by the SAD-BJP coalition in the 10 years of their rule.

Terming the half-way mark of his government as "an occasion to stop and review the work of the past and to draw out a detailed strategy for the second half", he underlined the need to go forward with focused action plan.

He asked the ministers to work closely with the MLAs in their respective areas to get their inputs and feedback on a regular basis.

Singh directed them to pay special attention to the development work identified or initiated by the MLAs in their constituencies.

He said it was important to look at the future strategy from both political and administrative viewpoints.

"Politically, we need to identify how to engage better with the people, take our achievements to them, and prioritise their issues that need urgent attention," Singh stressed.

Underpinning the administrative aspect of the government's role, he urged the ministers to review their work of the past 30 months from the perspective of the progress made with respect to implementation of the poll promises and manifesto announcements.

In this context, he asked them to take particular note of the performance on the flagship government of India programmes and the new legislations or policies of the government.

Restructuring of the departments and recruitment of critical manpower for smooth and timely execution of policies and projects was identified by the chief minister as a crucial focus area for all the ministers, as the government prepared to move forward even more proactively and aggressively towards the development of the state.

He was of the view that every department should check and review its achievements holistically with a focus on issues that had not been addressed very effectively so far or were yet to be taken up by the government.

Singh emphasised on the importance of ensuring that the aspirations of the people, who continue to have high hopes from the government, are fulfilled completely.

He said while every member of the government had shown exemplary performance in these 30 months, it was time now to scale up the levels even further.

While 140 of the 161 announcements of the government had been implemented already, the remaining were also in the process of execution, he said.

Singh called for concerted measures to bring Punjab back on the track as India's leading state in terms of overall development and across the key indices of health, education, industrialisation, agriculture and law and order.

While considerable progress had been made on every count, his government was committed to ensuring the highest levels of all-round development for the state and every section of its people, the chief minister said.