Punjab Chief Secretary to be chairman of urban planning, development authorities

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Chief Secretary will be the chairman of all local urban planning and development authorities in the state, the state cabinet decided yesterday. Earlier, the Chief Minister and concerned ministers headed these authorities.
This decision of the government has come under fire as it has given ammunition to the opposition parties, who have termed it as reducing the Punjab Chief Minister to a 'mere puppet' at the hands of his 'bosses from Delhi'.
The state cabinet yesterday met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and decided to appoint the Chief Secretary as the chairman of all local urban development authorities in the state such as Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA), Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and Greater Ludhiana Development Authority (GLADA), thus effectively transferring this responsibility from the Chief Minister, who traditionally headed them.
The cabinet amended Section 29(3) of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development (PRTPD) Act, thus empowering the Chief Secretary to head the development authorities, a move modelled after Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority in Gujarat and urban authorities of Noida, Meerut, Kanpur and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

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