Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 9
Following the Election Commission of India’s guidelines for the Assembly polls, PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu kick-started party’s digital campaign and spoke about unveiling an agenda of governance reforms primarily through digitisation and making a ‘Digital Punjab’.
Empowering panchayats need of the hour
It is the need of the hour to decentralise power by empowering panchayats and other local bodies and ensuring their functioning is digitalised. — Navjot Singh Sidhu, PCC
Being the first party to come out with a virtual campaign, the PCC president said the Congress had been emphasising the importance of digitisation and maintaining a virtual interaction with the electorate. Asserting that the state Congress had maximum engagement and outreach in digital space, he said: “We are ready for an online campaign, coordinating with our workers and leaders at district, Assembly and booth levels.”
He said the party’s social media war room had more than 10k WhatsApp groups and they were reaching out to people at the booth level via Facebook, WhatsApp and other digital mediums.
Bringing back the focus on the real areas of improvement, he said: “It is forgotten that panchayat has the power to perform 170 functions and levy 12 different kind of taxes. It is the need of the hour to decentralise power by empowering the panchayats and other local bodies and ensuring their functioning is digitalised.”
Punjab needed governance reforms by bringing in policies to address public issues with a strategy to reduce poverty, he said. Speaking on the Punjab Model at a virtual press conference, the PCC president said it was not a personal or self-serving model, but one for the people of Punjab.
“It’s a tailor-made solution for issues prevalent in Punjab which are created after intensive research conducted on the state and its functioning. This model brings the power back in the hands of the people of Punjab for their own prosperity and growth,” he asserted.
The party aimed to create a “Digital Punjab” wherein over 150 government services, permits and approvals would be made available to people on their doorstep. The revolution was intended to begin with the first-of-its-kind ‘Digital Election’, planned to be held in Punjab, and pave the way for digitalisation for all other activities, he added.
'Digital Punjab' to offer 150 services on doorstep: Sidhu
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