RTI Reveals Major Financial Boost To Panjab, Industry Grows

Panjab has received a major financial boost for strengthening urban infrastructure under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0). Projects worth USD 670M were approved across the state, according to information obtained under an Right to Information (RTI) Act by activist Kamal Anand under the AMRUT mission, and Panjab has initiated 163 projects. These included 58 water supply projects, 62 sewerage and septage management projects costing USD 168M, and 43 parks and green spaces projects involving USD 1.7M. Against a committed central assistance scheme, the union government released USD 132M to Panjab. Under AMRUT 2.0, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has approved 214 projects worth USD 406.3M since 1 Oct 2021 with water supply as the key focus. In addition, 12 sewerage and septage management projects worth USD 60.9M have been sanctioned to strengthen sanitation services. Meanwhile, according to a report submitted by the state government to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), 12 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have reported gaps between the generation and processing of solid waste under legacy waste remediation. Panjab Chief Secretary Kumar Anugraha Prasad Sinha has requested three months to address the gap and to submit a detailed report to NGT. Additionally, a women-led citizens collective under the banner Chalo (Let's Go) Amritsar organized a public walk in the city. The collective highlighted the Bhagtanwala landfill, located about 1.5 kms from the Golden Temple, as a major environmental concern. Dr. Navneet Kaur Bhullar from Jalandhar said, ‘There have been reports proving that emissions from the site affect air quality, public health, and food safety across the city. It is also causing deterioration of the gold plating at the Golden Temple.’ Concurrently, according to data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India, Panjab industry has registered a growth in the past five years. Panjab has added 13,166 new registered factories in 2023–24 which is a marginal decline of sixty-two units from 13,228 in 2022–23.  The data shows while Haryana lost 1,446 factories since 2018–19, Panjab added 341 units during the same period.