GUWAHATI, Oct 27 - Urging the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the districts to take steps for speedy implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Rural) and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said Assam cannot lag behind in implementing these two dream projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Chief Minister was reviewing the status of implementation of these two schemes in the State through video conferencing with the Deputy Commissioners, at his conference room at Janata Bhawan today.
Taking note of poor performances of districts, like Bongaigaon, Cachar, Chirang, Dhubri, Dhemaji, etc., which have failed to achieve less than 10 percent of their targets of PMUY, Sonowal directed the DCs to regularly sit with oil company officials in their districts to achieve their targets of providing free LPG connection to women belonging to below poverty line families.
�To remove all confusions and to build a strong team spirit among the oil company officials, district administration and officials of Food and Civil Supplies Department in the district, a weekly meeting must be held where all lacunas can be thrashed out,� the Chief Minister said.
On receiving complaints from DCs about not receiving adequate support from the oil companies in providing LPG connections to the targeted beneficiaries, Sonowal directed the oil company representatives present in the meeting to fulfil their commitment in this regard so that the flagship programme of Prime Minister Modi can be implemented by providing two lakh LPG connections every month till March 31, 2018. He also directed the DCs to take it as their moral duty to implement this scheme within stipulated time.
Reviewing the progress of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Rural), the Chief Minister observed that geo-tagging of public toilets constructed under the scheme has not been done to the desired level and he directed the DCs to take proactive steps to achieve 80 percent of the geo-tagging targets by November 3, 2017 to receive the remaining amounts under the scheme from the Central government for this financial year. He also instructed the DCs to submit utilization certificates (UCs) of the money received till now which must be forwarded to Centre for release of the remaining amount.
The Chief Minister also called on the DCs to take steps for facilitating those members of the society who have the willingness to donate community toilets at public places and he cited the example of Jorhat DC who has successfully brought donors in achieving this target of toilet construction. Sonowal also announced in the meeting that those DCs who perform well in implanting these two schemes would be awarded at the State level.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister warned the Charaideo DC to be cautious in handing out cheques to the public with expired dates in view of the recent fiasco and he directed all DCs to be careful in distributing cheques through the public representatives as negligence in this regard would not be tolerated.
The Chief Minister also urged the DCs to take all measures for maintaining law and order in view of the impending NRC draft publication and to ensure no untoward incident takes place anywhere.
