Chandigarh, March 15: In a major push for the ruraldevelopment in the state, the Punjab Government has earmarked Rs 4,300-crorefor the holistic development of the villages.
"The idea is to develop each and every village andensure that every villager gets basic amenities at par with the cities to endthe rural-urban divide in the state," said the Chief Secretary, Ms ViniMahajan, while reviewing the ongoing development projects under the RuralDevelopment and Panchayats department, here today.
Chairing a high-level meeting, the Chief Secretarycomplemented the village panchayats for ensuring qualitative work progress atthe grassroots level despite the COVID scare.
She asked the department officials to speed up the ongoingdevelopment works and complete them within the stipulated time frame whileensuring quality control.
Under the rural development corpus, the Punjab Governmenthad already released Rs 3,600 crore, of which Rs 2,400 crore had been spent,while another instalment of Rs 700 crore will be released by April.
"The panchayats deserve special applause for managingthe development works and ensuring utilisation of Rs 2,400-crore fund despitethe fact that the last one year remained under the shadow of COVID," theCS commented.
Reiterating the commitment of the Captain AmarinderSingh-led Punjab Government for the inclusive rural development in the state,Ms Mahajan said there was no dearth of funds and if needed, more funds willalso be made available for uplifting the basic infrastructure in the villages.
Taking stock of the implementation of the MGNREGA in thestate, she directed the department to ensure optimal utilisation of the fundsso that the developmental work cycle was not affected and liquidity was infusedto the rural folks.
She also asserted that adequate grants should be provided tothe village gram panchayats to continue the development works in a seamlessmanner.
Additional Chief Secretary, Rural Development andPanchayats, Ms Seema Jain, apprised the Chief Secretary that all the ongoingdevelopment works were being monitored by the officials at the headquarters.She assured that the development funds will reach the grassroots level toimprove the quality of life in the rural areas.