by Punjabnewswire4u
CHANDIGARH, MARCH 18
The Punjab Chief
Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today called for a
nation-wide political
Winding up the debate
on the Governor's address in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Mr Badal also impressed
upon for an end to the politics of confrontation and starting of an era of
political consensus for taking the state forward on the path to progress and
getting its long pending demands settled. The Chief Minister asked the Centre
to desist from usurping the powers vested in states by the constitution of India under
state’s list. He pleaded the fixation of Agriculture inputs and MSP,
upgradation of schools, allocation of funds under the National Rural/Urban
Health Mission and allotment of link roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojna etc. should be solely left to the states so that they could prioritise
these projects according to the felt needs of the people.
Pleading for the
scrapping of centrally sponsored schemes which were arbitrarily based on the
parameters suited to the Centre, the Chief Minister asked the Union government
to transfer the funds directly to
the states as Untied Funds and Direct Grants to enable them to formulate schemes.
He cited Central government retained 67.5% of all the tax collected and merely
32.5% was devolved to the states. Mr Badal vehemently said, “Shiromani Akali
Dal is the maiden political party which raised the voice for a federal set up
and devolution of funds to the states in the right earnest could be a step for
achieving this goal”.
The Chief Minister rued the grave injustice
meted out to Punjab by the successive Congress governments at the Centre adding
he said refusal of Punjabi speaking areas and transfer of Chandigarh to the state and denial of
legitimate share of river waters in accordance with universally accepted
Riparian Law were the testimony to it. Demanding
immediate transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi speaking areas to Punjab and early
resolution of river waters, Mr Badal said that Punjab could no longer be denied
its justified right over these contentious inter-state territorial issues.
The constant saga of apathy has not
yet ended here and now the UT administration of Chandigarh was tinkering with
the prevalent system of maintaining 60:40 ratio of posting officers from Punjab
and Haryana in Chandigarh administration till it was not transferred to Punjab.
Mr Badal also mentioned that UT administration of Chandigarh was flouting the norms despite
without any provision of its cadre or recruitment. Earlier the post of
Chief Commissioner was held by Punjab cadre IAS Officer however it was
abolished by the Centre during militancy and consequently Punjab Governor was
made ex-officio administrator and UT Cadre IAS officer has been appointed his
Advisor ever since.
Bemoaning the denial
of justice to the victims of 1984 anti Sikh riots, the Chief Minister appealed
the Centre through this house to bring to book the guilty of this heinous
crime. He said Congress party instead of punishing the guilty has rewarded the
perpetrators with plump posts in the Government and the party. Mr Badal sought
exemplary punishment to the guilty of 1984 riots without any further delay.
Banking upon his
foremost agenda to ensure peace, communal harmony, brotherhood, development and
clean administration, the Chief Minister categorically said that the
spectacular victory of Dasuya and Moga by-elections with huge margins was
reflective of people’s unstinted support and faith in the pro-development
policies of SAD-BJP alliance government. Continuing the spree of winning
different elections, he also pointed out SAD’s unprecedented performance in
capturing the control of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) by winning
37 out of 46 seats in the recently concluded elections was again an outcome of
party’s firm belief in the ethos of mankind.
Seeking co-operation
and support from the opposition, the Chief Minister appealed them to sink their
differences for the overall development of the state and the well being of its
people. Mr Badal said that he always held the opposition in high esteem and
adopted a constructive approach towards them thereby impressing upon them to
work collectively for the betterment of Punjab
rising above the narrow and vested political affiliations. He said, “Our
party had completely vanished the atmosphere of vendetta and confrontation,
which was once the order of the day during Congress regime prior to formation
of SAD-BJP alliance government in 2007”. The Chief Minister urged Congress with
all humility to shun the path of confrontation to usher an era of politics of
consensus to take peace, communal harmony and development in Punjab
to zenith. Mr Badal said, “The confrontation is the flagship scheme of the
Congress, which is unfortunate”
The Chief Minister said;
"The overall development seen in the state during the SAD-BJP alliance
government over the past six years has no parallel in the history of the state
and was rapidly poised to become the frontrunner state in the country”. The
unprecedented development coupled with the pro-people policies has paid rich
dividends to the SAD-BJP alliance in creating a history by coming to power for
the second consecutive term. He assured the unaccomplished development agenda
of the state set out in its previous term would be taken out to its logical
conclusion in the current term zealously. He however said that all the
development projects and pro-people welfare schemes would be implemented to
cherish the aspirations of the people.
Listing out the
achievements and priorities of his government briefly, the Chief Minister
promised a ‘New Punjab’ with a modern outlook having world class social and
physical infra structure within next four years. He said that ‘New Punjab’
would be the outcome of the state government’s sheer initiative and pragmatic
approach through its pro-people and development oriented policies.
Mr Badal demanded that
the Union government should immediately enhance the allocation of Crop Diversification
to Rs 5000 crore, from meagre Rs 500 crore for the Green Revolution states as
announced by the Union Finance Minister in his budget speech, on the pattern of
already sanctioned Rs 4000 crore to the eastern states under bringing Green
Revolution to Eastern India. He also advocated that the MSP of the crops should be fixed
keeping in view the recommendations of National Farmers Commission headed by
Dr. Swaminathan which recommended that MSP should provide the farmers a margin
of 50% over the cost of production. Mr Badal mentioned that even the criteria
for allocation of funds under RKVY were highly discriminatory adding that
though the state contributed about 35-40% rice to the central pool, it had not
been included in National Food Security Mission for Rice. Even in National Food
Security Mission for wheat, only 10 districts of the state have been covered.
On the Power sector,
the Chief Minister renewed his commitment that Punjab would soon become a power
surplus state with the commissioning of all units of three thermal plants at
Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal Sahib to be functional by May 2014.
Mr Badal said that Transmission and Distribution losses had been reduced from
22.53% to 17.50% thereby saving nearly Rs 2000 crore.
The Chief Minister said
that strenuous efforts have been made to revamp the education infrastructure at
all levels be it school, college and university. Apart from Central University at Bathinda seven new private
universities have been started and equal number of letters of intent has been
issued for other private universities. As many as 18 new degree colleges have
been opened and two more were being opened in Amargarh in Sangrur and Jalalabad
in Fazilka districts. It’s a matter of great pride that Punjab
had been rated first in “Composite Education Development Index of India” in
2010-2011 from its earlier 14thrank in the year 2005-2006.
Nearly 61000 school teachers had been appointed since 2007 and process
was on to recruit 5622 more besides services of 17000 school teachers had been
regularised and 7654 would be regularized soon.
Dwelling on the
initiatives taken by the state government to strengthen Health and Medical
infrastructure, the Chief Minister said that Punjab State Cancer and
De-addiction treatment infrastructure fund has been created to eradicate the
menace of cancer on one hand and to wean away the youth from the scourge of
drug addiction. Tata Memorial Cancer hospital would come up at Mullanpur near
Chandigarh at a cost of Rs 450 crore and the 50 acre land has already been
allotted free of cost for setting up of this state of the art cancer hospital.
Rs 300 crore had been spent for the up gradation of infra structure to provide
the best treatment to the cancer patients in Government medical colleges besides
100 bedded Cancer hospital was being set up in Bathinda at a cost of Rs 68
crore. Likewise the Chief Minister’s cancer relief fund has been enhanced from
Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore.
On the law and order
front, the Chief Minister said that the Punjab
government was committed to ensure safety and security of women in the state
and was far ahead of almost all the states of the region to implement path
breaking initiatives in this behalf. 20 fast track courts have been sanctioned
for speedy trial of gender related crimes. Strict instructions had been issued
by the Home Department for not calling any women to Police stations and all
ladies to be examined at their residence in the presence of their family by the
Police authorities accompanied by a lady Police officer. Government has also
mooted a proposal to have a lady gazetted officer and adequate constables in
each Police station. The government had already approved to recruit six lady
DSPs, 36 Inspectors, 338 Sub Inspectors and 1200 constables over a period of next
three years.
To ensure planned and
integrated urban development, the Chief Minister said for the first time master
plans for cities had been formulated adding that 32 master plans had already
been notified and 18 would be notified within a year and 40 more would be
notified in next three years. A Medicity over an area of 250 acre at Mullanpur
near Chandigarh
was being developed. Ludhiana Metro Rail project had been approved at a cost of
Rs 9840 crore and its Detailed Project Report has been submitted to the
Government of India. A project of City Bus Service at a cost of Rs 98 crore has
been launched thereby adding a fleet of 350 buses in Amritsar
and Ludhiana.
Strenuous efforts have been made to cover all the villages and Dhanis across
the state with quality potable drinking water supply by December 2014 at 70
litres per person per day. Out of 15170 total villages and Dhanis, 7085 had
been covered during over government at accost of Rs 1664 crore.
Showing satisfaction
over the tremendous increase in the VAT and Excise the Chief Minister said that
the Revenue from VAT had gone up to Rs 12000 crore in 2011-2012 as compared to
Rs 5136 crore in 2006-2007 during Congress regime which was likely to touch Rs
14700 crore in 2012-2013. Likewise the Excise Collection was expected to be Rs
3400 crore in 2012-2013 as compared to Rs 1363 crore in 2006-2007 during the
Congress regime. This increase was further likely to touch a mark of Rs 4020
crore in 2013-14. Referring to the annual plan size Mr Badal pointed out
that it was just Rs 4000 crore during 2006-2007 which was the last year of
Congress regime whereas we enhanced it to Rs 14000 crore in 2012-2013 and
further intend to take it up to Rs 16123 crore in 2013-2014.
Referring to the
remarkable progress made by SAD-BJP government for strengthening and up
gradation of the Road infra structure, the Chief Minister said that nearly Rs
10000 crore was being spent on the four laning of eight road projects across
the state besides Rs 750 crore on the Railway over and under bridges. A sum of
Rs 1700 crore would be spent on the repair of all the link roads within one
year and 1000 kilometers of link roads would be upgraded under Pradhan Mantri
Gram Sadak Yojna.
Reiterating the commitment of the state government to ensure the welfare of
disadvantaged sections of the society, the Chief Minister said that the state
was having the highest concentration of Schedule Caste population in the
country. He said that Punjab was the first
state to implement the Shagun
Scheme for SCs which has now been extended to Christians, BCs, Muslims, Weaker
Sections and Widows. He said that the Congress Government in their regime
from 2002-07 has disbursed a meager amount of Rs 90 Crore for this purpose but
after taking over reigns SAD-BJP Government (2007-13) has distributed Shaguns
worth Rs 407 Crore adding that number of beneficiaries has also increased
manifolds from 95000 in Congress Government (2002-07) to 2,36,000 in SAD-BJP
Government (2007-13). He said that apart from it the 19.94 lakh beneficiaries
were getting pensions every month by the state government. The government has
successfully implemented the Atta Dal scheme covering 15.20 lakh beneficiaries
at an annual expenditure of nearly Rs 300 crore.
To perpetuate the rich
legacy of our cultural heritage amongst our younger generations, the state
government had approved to construct Jang-e-Azaadi memorial at Kartarpur to
showcase the immense contribution of Punjabis in the national freedom struggle.
Likewise, the Government had already given nod to construct Guru Ravidass
Memorial at Khuralgarh, Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal at Amritsar
besides Swami Vivekanand Memorial, War Memorial at Amritsar, Moti Ram Mehra Memorial at
Fatehgarh Sahib, Baba Jiwan Singh Yaadgar and Swami Birja Nand Yaadgar at
Kartarpur were under active consideration. A state of the art Rs. 78
crore project of Golden
Temple Entrance
Plaza was in the advanced
stage of completion. The Chief Minister stated as per Government of India
report Punjab has been ranked as 12th in tourism sector in the country from
the earlier 28th position
in the Congress regime.
Making a firm resolve
to tackle the problem of unemployment which has posed the biggest challenge to
the society, the Chief Minister said that his government had created a new
department of employment generation and training during the previous regime. A
target of imparting skill training to the 50000 unemployed youth has been fixed
through all technical institutes, universities, Polytechnics, ITIs and private industry
players besides 30000 in other departments like Tourism and Rural Development.
Apart from this a target of imparting skill training to 12000 youth has been
fixed for the year 2013-2014 through C-PYTE.
Outlining the
achievements in Industrial sector, the Chief Minister said that the state
government has so far approved 98 Mega projects since 2007 worth Rs 52614
crore. New Focal points were being developed at Kapurthala and Phase- 8 A and B
Mohali. A new investor friendly industrial policy would be announced soon to
herald Industrial revolution in the state. Capital Subsidy worth Rs 410 crore
has been disbursed. Punjab Industrial facilitation Act had been implemented to
ensure sanctions to the entrepreneurs in a fast track manner. Mr Badal stated
that since agriculture had already reached at a saturation point and now our
hopes were pinned to promote trade, industry and services sector as an
alternative.
The state government
has focussed special attention for the promotion of sports and made spectacular
achievements in this arena. 13 stadiums had been constructed/ upgraded at a
cost of Rs 200 crore. Award money had been considerably increased from Rs 1
crore to Rs 2.5 crore to the sports persons winning Gold Medal in Olympics,
from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.01 crore for silver and from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 51 lakh
for Bronze medal. Likewise the award money for the Kabaddi world cup had also
been hiked to Rs 2 crore, Rs 1 crore and 51 lakh to the winner, first runners
up and second runners up besides Rs 10 lakh each for all the participating
teams . 
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