17,440 development works begin under smart village campaign in Punjab

Immediately after the launch of the second phase of the Smart Village Campaign by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, as many as 17,440 development works have been commenced in the various gram panchayats across the state so far at an outlay of Rs 327 crore to ensure holistic rural development.

Notably, Captain Amarinder launched the second phase of SVC on October 17, 2020, after implementation of its first phase, which was launched in 2019 for the execution of 19,132 works for Rs 835 crore. The first phase of SVC included works like; Renovation of Ponds, Street lights, Parks, Gymnasiums, Community Halls, Drinking Water Supply, Model Anganwadi Centres, Smart Schools and Solid Waste Management.

On the directives of Captain Amarinder, 48910 development works are being taken up during the second phase of SVC at a total cost of Rs 2,775 crore with a focus on “Har ghar pakki chhat” i.e. to provide the rural poor with better housing facilities. While doing so, the focus shall be on ‘inclusive’ growth, i.e. to include households such as Women Headed Households, persons with disabilities, critically ill persons, families of martyrs, scheduled castes, besides taking up 750 sports stadiums in the rural areas for development.

According to an official spokesperson, various sources of funding the aforesaid projects under phase II to spruce up rural development included 14th Finance Commission grants (Rs 1,088 crore) and 15th Finance Commission grants (Rs 694 crores), which have already been released to 13,265 gram panchayats in 22 districts while other sources such as MGNREGA, Rural Development Fee (RDF) and own sources of gram panchayats are also being made available to ensure timely completion of these development works.