Water scheme for 4 towns

CHANDIGARH, Jan 10: Four Punjab towns have been selected for a new scheme for provision of urban drinking water. The scheme which has an outlay of Rs 3.25 crore will cover the towns of Khanna, Sham Chaurasi, Rayya and Shah Kot.

The proposal for these towns was submitted to the Centre government at a meeting between held recently, and the Centre government has sanctioned Rs 84 lakhs for the purpose. Apart from these Punjab also made a request for release of over 12 crore of rupees to meet the cost of the environment improvement scheme in four towns 8211; Ludhiana, Phillaur, Phagwara and Jalandhar by the Sutlej Action plan. Grants for four other urban development schemes namely Urban Water Supply, Slum Clearance, improvement of roads at Jalandhar and the Sutlej Action Plan have also been sought.

The urban water supply programme has been specifically formulated for towns with less than a population of 20,000 persons. While the initial amount has been sanctioned, the balance is expected to be sanctioned by March this year.

In the other urban programmes, the revalidation for the provision made in the current year for the release of one crore of rupees for improvement of roads at Jalandhar has also been granted.

These decisions follow a meeting of the Minister, Local Bodies, Punjab, Balwamjit Das Tandon with the Union Minister of State for Urban Bodies, B Dattatreya and which was also attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment.