Giving urban facilities to villages of Punjab, top priority of Mann Government: Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal

Chandigarh, December 1, 2022: Providing urban facilities to the villages of Punjab is the priority of the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan and the Panch/Sarpanch of the state and the villagers to rise above politics and factionalism to ensure the development of the village. This was expressed by Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal inaugurated a special two-day training program for the elected representatives of the General Assembly and Panchayati Raj at Vikas Bhavan SAS Nagar here today.

Dhaliwal, while launching the 'Mera Pind Meri Rooh' campaign under the General Assembly of the Gram Sabha, said that the villagers and the elected representatives should decide for themselves what they want to develop in their village. He said that the General Assembly is required to be held twice a year during Rabi season (June) and Kharif season (December), in which the Gram Sabha passes the budget estimate of income and expenditure of its Gram Panchayat for the next financial year and the annual plan of the development program for the next financial year. He said that the department is also going to set up a special control room, through which panches/sarpanches will be provided with the outstanding amount and other information through mobile phone on the expenditure of the grant of their village.

Expressing grief, Dhaliwal said that the previous governments did not understand the importance of the general assembly and left no stone unturned to destroy the village councils. He said that even if the sarpanch is associated with any political party, the Hon'ble government wants to develop the villages. He said that during the last 8 months, the department has freed illegal encroachments on more than 10,000 acres of Panchayat lands and this campaign will continue. He said that the Punjab government will not tolerate corruption at any cost and Special attention is being paid to the amount being spent by the Panchayats.

On this occasion, elected representatives of Panchayati Raj, officials, and employees, employees of line departments, SHG,  two-day training program was also initiated for the members, Anganwadi workers and Asha workers. He said that by dividing the sustainable development goals into 9 thematic areas, emphasis is being placed on the development of villages by the state government. He said that in these 9 themes poverty-free and advanced livelihood village, healthy village, child-friendly village, water-rich village, clean and green village, village with self-sustaining infrastructure, social justice and socially safe village, Well-administered village and unkul village of women etc. are included. He said that two-day training programs will be organized at the block level across the state on different days, in which the sarpanches and panches will be told about their rights, about various schemes for development. He said that during this training program, information will be given in detail about various schemes for the development of villages, with which Sarpanch and Panch will be able to write a new example of development in their villages.

On this occasion, Director Rural Development and Panchayats Department Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Joint Development Commissioner Amit Kumar, Joint Director Sanjeev Garg, Deputy Director Jatinder Singh Brar, SIDR State Resource Person Training  Gurmel Singh Dhillon, Apart from a large number of Panchs and Sarpanchs were present. Besides, BDPOs of blocks across the state, panchayat secretaries and panches and sarpanches across Punjab were involved through video conferencing.