Chandigarh, Oct 15 (IANS): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will flag off Phase-II of Punjab's Smart Village Campaign virtually on Saturday to pave the way for the next phase of the holistic development of the 13,000 plus villages across the state.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will join Gandhi in the virtual launch of the campaign, which will be launched simultaneously from 1,500 rural locations in the state.

The programme will be attended by all state cabinet ministers, the Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker, state party President Sunil Jakhar, and key officials, including Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, from various locations through video conferencing.

All Congress MLAs from Punjab will also participate in the programme, in addition to some select sarpanches from the nearby districts of Patiala, SAS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Announcing this on Thursday, Amarinder Singh said after the successful completion of Phase-I of the Rural Transformation Programme, the launch of the second phase will mark the initiation of around 50,000 development works worth approximately Rs 2,700 crore.

These will include streets and drains, water and sanitation, ponds, street lighting, among others.