Review meeting of Budha Dariya Task Force to be held every 15 days: Suresh Kumar

Ludhiana: A meeting to review the progress of Rs 650-crore Budha Dariya Rejuvenation Project was held under the chairmanship of Task Force head Satguru Uday Singh of Namdhari sect, Chief Principal Secretary to CM Punjab Suresh Kumar, besides other senior officials of Punjab government through video conferencing at Bachat Bhawan, here today. This meeting was also attended by Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal, besides several others.

    During the meeting, Suresh Kumar said that to ensure timely completion of this project in a time bound manner, the review meeting of the Task Force and all government departments would be held through video conferencing every 15 days. He said that the next such meeting would be held on April 5, 2021.

    He also directed the District Administration to speed up the process related to the shifting of dairies from the city to village Gorsian Kadar Baksh. He said that AK Sinha, Principal Secretary Local Government, Punjab, would personally visit Ludhiana on Tuesday and would sort out issue related to shifting to dairies from the city. He reiterated that all stakeholders should be on board over this issue and the panchayat of village Gorsian Kadar Baksh should be shown a prototype of proposed dairy project at GADVASU, that would replicated at the village.

    He also directed all departments to ensure completion of the works allocated to them in a time bound manner. The issue related to encroachments along the Budha Nullah was also reviewed. MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal informed the task force members that out of 965 encroachments along the Budha Nullah, 201 have been removed, whereas the remaining would be removed soon as MC Ludhiana is already on the job. He said that encroachments from approximately 3 kilometre area have already been removed by the civic body.

    Suresh Kumar also directed the MC Commissioner to ensure that the encroachments do not hamper the ongoing rejuvenation work of the contractor. He said that the construction of 225 MLD Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Jamalpur area of the city has already started, along with the work of installing chain link fencing on both sides of the 14-km stretch of Budha Nullah.

    In today’s meeting, the progress of all aspects of the Rs 65-crore Budha Dariya Rejuvenation project was also reviewed and timelines were fixed for every work.

    Suresh Kumar assured the Ludhiana residents that very soon, the Budha Dariya would present a neat and clean look with clean water and beautification of embankments. He said that cleaning of around 14-kilometer long stretch of Budha Dariya is one of the foremost projects of the Capt Amarinder Singh led Punjab government. He also assured that this project would be carried out in a transparent manner and not even a single penny of the public funds to be used for this project would not be misused at any cost.  

    Satguru Uday Singh also appreciated the Punjab government for making positive progress in this project. He assured all possible help for this project.

    Prominent among those who attended today’s meeting included Senior Deputy Mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra, Deputy Mayor Sarabjit Kaur, ADC (D) Sandeep Kumar, ADC (General) Amarjit Bains, ADC (Projects) Neeru Katyal Gupta, Jaswant Zafar, Jaskirat Singh, Col (Retd) JS Gill, besides several others.