Bharat Bhushan Ashu launches e-daakhil and several other welfare schemes from Ludhiana

Ludhiana: Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu today launched E-Daakhil portal as well as several other welfare schemes for the residents during a district-level function organised at Bachat Bhawan, here. Chief Minister Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh launched these schemes through video conferencing from Chandigarh.

    Punjab Youth Development Board Chairman Mr Sukhwinder Singh Bindra, under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh, also launched the distribution of 2500 sports kits for the youth in the same function.

    MLAs Mr Surinder Dawar and Mr Sanjay Talwar, Mayor Mr Balkar Singh Sandhu, PMIDB Chairman Mr Amarjit Singh Tikka, DCC Ludhiana (Urban) President Mr Ashwani Sharma, MC Councillors Mr Sunny Bhalla and Mr Harkaran Singh Vaid, Deputy Commissioner Mr Varinder Kumar Sharma, MC Commissioner Mr Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal, ADC (D) Mr Sandeep Kumar, MC Joint Commissioner Mrs Swati Tiwana, Punjab Youth Development Board vice chairman Mr Vikram Kamboj, Mr Nitin Tandon, Mr SB Pandhi, besides several others were also present on the occasion.

    While speaking on the occasion, Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu informed that the new e-Daakhil portal would help consumers safeguard their rights. It will provide them with an effective mechanism to protect them from exploitation at the hands of traders, and will facilitate them in approaching consumer courts with ease, he said, while launching the portal. Created to enable e-filling of consumer complaints in accordance with the new Consumer Protection Act 2019, which envisages filling of consumer dispute electronically to Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, the portal will facilitate online filling of complaints by citizens/advocates.

    He further said this unique online platform would empower the consumer and protect his interest. He also revealed that with this, the manufacturer would now be held responsible for defective goods along with the seller under the new Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

    Mr Sukhwinder Singh Bindra informed that 2500 sports kits, through community participation especially of the Ludhiana industry, would help promote health awareness and sports culture in the state. It would motivate youth to take up sports in a big way, thus enabling the State to regain its lost glory in the arena of sports both at national and international levels, he said. He hoped the initiative of Punjab Youth Development Board would help inculcate sportsmanship spirit amongst youth, especially those from rural areas as they had scant resources to equip them to excel in the field of sports. He was confident it would help keep youth away from drugs and ensure constructive channelisation of their energy. On the occasion, sports kits were distributed to 5 youth clubs of the district.

    Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu thanked the Chief Minister for launching the BASERA programme, under which around 1 lakh slum dwellers of the state would be given proprietary rights. He stated that Municipal Corporation Ludhiana has identified 13 Slum colonies under The Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act 2020, which are situated on the government land.

    Terming this initiative as a milestone step towards inclusive urban development and planning of the state government, Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu said the Chief Minister had been nurturing this dream for the past 52 years of his political career. He said that the Local Government department would provide basic civic amenities including potable drinking water, street lighting and roads to the slum dwellers for a comfortable life.

    He also thanked Local Government Minister Mr Brahm Mohindra as Punjab was the first state in the country to launch the Chief Minister’s Slum Development Programme ‘BASERA’ to confer proprietary rights to every slum household occupying state government land in a slum in any urban area on the date of notification of ‘The Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020’, i.e., 1st April 2020.

    He said that under the Dheeiyan Di Lohri special scheme, a series of events will be held every day across districts through the month to mark the occasion of Lohri, which will see congratulatory letters penned and signed by the Chief Minister being handed over to the parents of more than 1.5 lakh girls celebrating their first Lohri this year.

    He also thanked the Chief Minister for announcing free sanitary pads to all girl students of high schools and colleges besides those residing in rural areas, especially the slums across the state. Expressing gratitude to the Chief Minister on the move, he said this step would inculcate a sense of self confidence among these girls.

    Regarding the launching of the Rs. 75.64 Crore 3-phase Smart Metering project, he said the consumer-friendly scheme will help reduce human error in manual reading through automatic uploading of data. From January 2021 to December 2021, a total of 96,000 meters will be installed across the state by PSPCL under the project, which will also help to curb the malpractice of reading concealment/theft of electricity and improve the reading/billing efficiency and quality, he said.

    These meters will enable consumers to view instantaneous/live data as well as the last bill data via PSPCL Consumer App, besides maintaining and regulating power consumption. They will have the option to change meter to prepaid or post-paid. Rebate in tariff is admissible to the consumer under prepaid option and the same meter can be used as a Bidirectional meter for Solar Net metering. Consumers will not need to visit DISCOM offices to register complaint of wrong meter readings now, he added.

    He thanked the Chief Minister for launching these welfare schemes as a New Year gift on the birthday of his father Maharaja Yadavindra Singh.