Ludhiana MC polls in second week of February: Navjot Singh Sidhu
Mayoral polls in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala on Jan 20, says minister
Local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday said the Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) will go to the polls in the second week of February. The minister said he has given a formal nod for this and the state election commission will soon announce the schedule.
The polls of the municipal corporations of Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala were held in December while that of Ludhiana was held back due to lack of preparedness.
Sidhu said the general bodies of the three municipal corporations will elect their mayors on January 20. During an interaction with the media, Sidhu released the 'vision document' of the departments of local government tourism and cultural affairs. He said emphasis will be laid on providing clean drinking water and solid waste management facilities to urban population.
Sidhu said the e-governance project to provide better facilities to people living the urban centres will start in April. The work on the passing of online maps will be started this month and will be completed by September, he said. He said in the first phase, a financial audit will be carried out of the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Ludhiana and their improvement trusts besides three municipalities of Kharar, Zirakpur and Rajpura by September.
He said 50% reservation was granted to women in all the municipal corporations, municipal councils and panchayats to ensure women empowerment.
He said the 550th Gurpurb of Guru Nanak Dev will be observed on a large scale in 2019 and the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy will also be observed.
Punjab Kala Parishad chairman Surjit Patar said the arts council will take the cultural renaissance to villages and hold art festivals in every village.