Dy CM ropes in top cops to monitor civic works

Dy CM ropes in top cops to monitor civic works
Asked to keep tab on construction of water supply, sewerage pipelines
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 30
The top police officials of Bathinda and Mansa districts are now busy in performing an unconventional duty of supervising the construction of the water supply and sewerage pipelines in their respective areas.
The duty has been made mandatory by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal after he held a meeting with the officials of the two districts, at his residence in Badal village about fortnight back, before leaving for abroad.
Highly placed sources informed that during a review meeting of the two districts-part of his wife MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal's constituency-the Deputy CM took an exception to the fact that the construction work of the water supply and sewerage projects was progressing at a snail's pace.
Annoyed over the slow progress made by the construction company as well as the officials of the department concerned, he pulled up the staff
concerned. The Deputy CM then came up with the idea to award each town to senior officials of the district to personally supervise the work and monitor the pace.
Meanwhile, making the supervising officers personally responsible for the progress of the projects, Sukhbir clearly mentioned that if any delay was reported in the towns assigned to them, it would be taken seriously.
While assigning the job, he asked Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill to personally monitor the progress of the development works at Maur Mandi, while Mansa SSP HS Mann was asked to look after the construction work in Mansa city.
Meanwhile, he assigned similar duties to two DSPs -DSP Bhucho, Baljeet Singh Sidhu and Phul, Vinod Chaudhary, for Bhucho and Phul towns, respectively.
Then, the DC Bathinda, has been given the duty to personally monitor the work related to laying of sewerage at Rama Mandi, where the situation is reported to be the worst.
However, the other towns of the two districts, like Sangat, Kotfatta, Goniana, Rampura, Budhladha and Sardulgarh, where also related works are going on, the duties have been assigned to ADCs and SDMs.
Now following the directions, all officials have started visiting the towns assigned to them twice or thrice a week and are busy in preparing a dossier as the Deputy CM is expected to call a review meeting in the coming few days.
Visiting Maur Mandi (which is assigned to the SSP, Bathinda), this correspondent found that the residents of the town were unaware about the development and were surprised as to why the police officials were frequently visiting the construction sites for the past about ten days.
Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said the off-beat duty would not hamper their prime duty, and added, "We are happy to perform the duty as it would enable us to improve our public dealings. It would further help in developing better relations between the police and the public."