Chandigarh: “The Punjab Government under the farsighted leadership of the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh is totally committed towards going full throttle on the road to prosperity by putting a stop to the revenue leakage, and eradicating corrupt practices. It is an article of faith with the Government to ensure transformation of Punjab into an economic powerhouse of the country”. This was disclosed by the Local Government Minister, Punjab, Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu here today at the Municipal Bhawan while interacting with the media persons.

Divulging more, Mr. Sidhu said that the Department of Local Bodies is soon going to sign an MoU with Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), Ludhiana to curb the illegal construction in Punjab. The MoU shall be initially for a period of five years.

Elaborating more, the minister said that the collaboration would result in the game changing benefits namely Satellite image based mapping (in GIS) of unauthorized colonies, Satellite image based mapping of illegal construction, Updated property and asset mapping of all corporations, councils and bodies under its control, Development of Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for effective decision making process, Periodic updates for monitoring of the developments of areas falling under Local bodies with comprehensive database besides real time monitoring of the status of the construction activities in Punjab.

Listing out other futuristic endeavours, the minister said that the e-Governance concept occupies a special place in his scheme of things to ensure developmental journey of the state. He also added that 67 services would be brought under the ambit of the e-Governance within this year and to give further impetus to this novel concept, an MoU would be signed tomorrow with the e-Gov company of Mr. Nandan Nilekani.

Mr. Sidhu further said the team from National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is coming tomorrow to further the agenda outlined in an MoU signed earlier regarding cleaning of of 'Nallahs' (Drains) flowing in major cities of the State. He also said that these ‘Nallahs’ would be turned into green belts.

Replying to a question regarding the forensic audit of 4 big cities and 3 towns, Mr. Sidhu said that the results of the audit would be out in 4 months timespan. On the occasion, Director Local Government Department Mr. Karnesh Sharma and Director Punjab Remote Sensing Centre Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana Dr. Brijendra Pateriya were also present.