Three years after coming to power in Punjab, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday laid before the Vidhan Sabha its report card claiming full marks. At the same time, the Chief Minister shared the future blue print of fulfilling its “remaining” promises while making several announcements.
Sharing the government’s achievements point by point as per the ‘Nawen Naroye Punjab Layee Captain De Naun Nukte’ (nine points of Captain for rejuvenated Punjab) based on the party manifesto released during the 2017 assembly polls, Capt Amarinder announced that the next Pay Commission would start its work soon and it would be implemented in the coming year.
Claiming to have broken the backbone of drugs as promised by him by holding ‘Gutka Sahib’, Capt Amarinder said that the Government would soon bring the State Drug Control Legislation.
Capt Amarinder, clearing air on doubts regarding implementation of the reservation policy in Punjab after the Supreme Court’s ruling mandating states to decide on job quota to SCs/STs, made it clear that the Government reservation policy would continue in the government jobs and promotions in the State, and there was no question of revoking the same.
Underlining the State Government’s commitment to transparency in governance and accountability in public services, the Chief Minister announced that the new Lokpal Bill will soon be tabled in the Assembly covering all officials, right from the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister also announced a new state Law University at Tarn Taran. He also announced a new policy, to be unveiled soon, for upgradation of schools in the State, besides further strengthening the Smart Schools network, operationalisation of five new colleges this year, intensification and expansion of ‘Parho Punjab Padhao Punjab’ programme in mission mode to scale up the education system, he said.
Expressing satisfaction over the state government’s performance, the Chief Minister said that they had achieved major success on all fronts, including elimination of drugs from the state, maintaining law and order, ensuring Ghar Ghar Rozgar, debt waiver scheme for farmers besides providing affordable Bijli, Paani and Safai Suraksha for trade, business and industry.
Apart from these, initiatives like reservation of 50 percent seats for women in punchayati raj institutions, and urban local bodies, free housing for homeless families belonging to Scheduled Castes and other weaker sections, enhanced reservation of 15 percent in educational institutions to economical weaker sections besides raising the eligibility income limit from Rs six to eight lakh and appointment of 4,300 Guardians of Governance (GoGs) from amongst ex-servicemen to oversee the execution of all socio-economic development programmes had been widely appreciated by one and all, said Capt Amarinder.
‘WILL GIVE LIFE RATHER THAN STATE’S WATER’
Capt Amarinder declared that he was ready to give up his life rather than give the state’s scare water resources to other states.
He declared that Punjab did not have surplus water and, in line with internationally accepted riparian principles, would not allow transfer of water from basin to non-basin areas. “The Government has made every possible effort to achieve this and shall continue to work in for protecting the water rights of Punjab, to ensure the livelihood of millions of Punjabi farmers and landless farm labourers,” he said pointing out that protecting the state’s water was a top priority for his government.
Regarding saving water, he said that apart from enactment of Punjab Water Resources (Management and Regulation) Act 2020, the Government had also piloted a unique project namely ‘Pani Bachao Paisa Kamao’, aimed at incentivizing farmers to save water and earn money by consuming lesser ground water.
“The project, under which agriculture consumers are given a fixed electricity entitlement for every month of the year and no bills are issued to the farmers, will be expanded under the Budget 2020-21,” he said.
ALL PARTY DELEGATION TO MEET PM ON MSP ISSUE
Urging the Central Government not to tinker with MSP-based procurement of food grains in any way as it will badly affect the livelihood of a large number of farmers and impair food security of the nation, Capt Amarinder said that an all-party delegation would meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
CAPT TRASHES AAP’S MUCH-HYPED DELHI DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Trashing AAP’s so-called Delhi model of development, Capt Amarinder said that his government had made bigger strides in Punjab on all counts, including the much-hyped education and power subsidies provided by the Arvind Kejriwal government in the national capital.
“Notwithstanding the limited resources, the government is providing total power subsidy of over Rs 12,000 crore this year, with around Rs 9000 crore to agriculture, 1500 crore to industry and 1900 crore to domestic consumers,” he said pointing that power rates for commercial establishments is Rs 7.75 per unit in Punjab as compared to Rs 10.90 per unit in Delhi.
Saying that the performance of Punjab Government’s schools was, in fact, better than Delhi, he cited the Class X results for 2019, which showed pass percentage at 72 percent in Delhi government schools against 88 percent in Punjab.
‘PSPCL, POWER DEPT EXPLORING OPTIONS TO REDUCE POWER RATES’
Responding to concerns of higher electricity tariff for the domestic consumers, he said that to bring down the same to more affordable levels, he has asked the State Power Department and the Punjab State Power Corporation to explore every possible option to make it comparable, if not less, with the neighbouring States.
The government will soon come out with a comprehensive policy on this, he added.
“The government remained unequivocally committed to supplying quality power to all domestic consumers at affordable prices and will do whatever possible to achieve this, even if it amounts to renegotiation of PPAs signed by the previous government with private power generating companies,” he said.
As promised, the government will also lay on the table of the House a white paper, clearly elaborating the power situation and issues of concerns to the people of Punjab, announced the Chief Minister.
AAP CAN VERIFY JOB FIGURES FROM DATA WITH SPEAKER
Referring to the success of ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ programme, the Chief Minister said that so far, 1714 placement camps had been organized wherein employment or jobs had been facilitated to 57,905 youth in the government sector, with 3,96,775 getting jobs in the private sector through these camps and another 7,61,289 being facilitated into self-employment.
As the AAP MLAs, including Aman Arora pointed at difference in figures given by Chief Minister and mentioned in the Governor’s address, the Chief Minister said that he had all the data to prove these numbers and would share the same with the Speaker, from whom they could verify.