Central Government on Thursday approved to include the State of Punjab under the Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojana scheme. The final nod was given by the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot conceding to the Punjab’s “long pending legitimate demand” aimed at benefiting millions of Schedule Castes (SC) in the State and transforming their fortunes, during his meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Badal, expressing gratitude, pointed that he had been pleading to get this demand implemented since long as Punjab was the most deserving State with highest SC population (32 per cent) in the country as per Census 2011 and out of the total number of 12,168 inhabited villages, 2,800 villages (23.01 per cent) have 50 per cent or more SC population.
Chief Minister said that this scheme would go a long way in providing basic infrastructural facilities like pavement of streets and phirnis, solar street lights, hand-pumps, toilets, water supply and sewerage.
Gehlot also agreed to the State Government’s proposal to establish Sports Institute for Disabled in Zirakpur nearly at the cost of Rs150 crore, for which the 10 acre land would be provided free of cost by the State Government to the Centre.
In another significant decision, the Minister assured Badal to get funding of the State Government’s scheme of Rs200 crore for setting up of 22 Rehabilitation Centres in all the districts, thoroughly examined in his Ministry within the ambit of stipulated guidelines of Central Sector scheme of Assistance for prevention of alcoholism and drugs.
These Centers were aimed at checking drug abuse, which was posing a major threat to our youth besides offering them an opportunity to lead a normal life after detoxification as part of their treatment with dignity. Chief Minister also urged Gehlot for seeking his personal intervention to get pending amount of Rs10 crore released under pre-matric scholarship scheme of SC students of Class IX and X, besides Rs14.61 crore balance against pre-matric scholarship to OBC students.
Union Minister assured Badal that he would soon hold a meeting of senior officers of the Ministry to get all issues settled once for all. He also asked the Joint Secretaries to visit the state next week to take stock of various proposals put forth by the State Government and initiate concrete steps for their timely implementation.