Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday reiterated his Government’s commitment to waive off farmers’ debts, saying that the State Farmers’ Commission would work out the modalities and give viable recommendations on the issue within two months.
“I am personally committed to implementing all Congress poll promises in the State, including farm loan waiver, elimination of drugs menace and exemplary punishment for those found guilty of sacrilege,” said Capt Amarinder while talking to media persons on the sidelines of his maiden visit to Punjab State War Heroes Memorial and Museum in Amritsar.
Capt Amarinder said the Uttar Pradesh Government had merely announced debt waiver for farmers to the tune of `one lakh without any practical framework to implement the same.
His Government, on the other hand, would formulate a comprehensive mechanism to free the beleaguered farmers of Punjab from their debt burden, he promised.
On the drugs’ issue, Capt Amarinder said that the Special Task Force under ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu was tackling the problem aggressively and in right earnest. However, some time was needed to rid the state completely of the menace, which has been thriving for the past over ten years due to the patronage of the erstwhile SAD-BJP regime.
Considering that his Government had just completed 60 days in office, the results were quite positive and drugs were in short supply as a result of the crackdown by the police, as was evident from the fact that the prices of drugs had skyrocketed, pushing them beyond the reach of drug addicts, he said while expressing confidence of total elimination of the drugs scourge soon.
On incidents of sacrilege and desecration of holy Sikh and other religious scriptures, Capt Amarinder said that some unscrupulous elements were deliberately indulging in such heinous activities in order to disrupt the peace and harmony of the state.
Referring to the involvement of a Gurdwara granthi in the sacrilege incident at Tarn Taran recently, he said that granthi had done this unpardonable and dastardly act to settle a score with the local gurdwara management after he was ousted from his job a few days back.
Capt Amarinder pointed out that his government had already set up a fresh Commission of Inquiry to probe all cases of desecration and identify the culprits.
Based on the report of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, the Government would severely deal with all those found guilty of such heinous crimes, he added.