Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has underlined the need for the people to make judicious use of their power to vote “to rid the nation of the anti-democratic forces, which were mercilessly destroying the constitutional fabric of India”.
Capt Amarinder, talking informally with mediapersons after hoisting the tricolour at Republic Day function, said that the Lok Sabha elections, due in a few weeks from now, would give us the chance to save ourselves from these anti-people forces that were ruling the country.
Earlier, addressing people, the Chief Minister vowed to restore Punjab to its number one position in the country.
“Punjab Government is well on way to implementing various pre-poll promises to bring the State back on the path of peace, progress and prosperity, which the previous SAD-BJP Government had destroyed,” he said.
Noting that this R-Day had come at a historic moment for the State, which was celebrating the 550th prakash purb of Guru Nanak Dev, he hailed the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor as a “victory for the Congress”, which had been pursuing the matter for long.
Praying for Chardi Kalan for the nation and Punjab, the Chief Minister called upon the newly elected Panches and Sarpanches, as well as the councillors, to ensure development in the villages and towns under the programmes launched by the Government for the rural and urban areas.
Underlining his Government’s focus on youth and the farming community, the Chief Minister said that he believed if the naujawan (youth) and the kisan (farmer) could prosper, the State would make new strides in growth and development.
“Farm loan waiver scheme has already provided relief of Rs 3500 crore to 4.1 lakh farmers in the first two phases, and third phase started two days ago would cover 1,42,260 small farmers with an amount of Rs 1,009 crore. Fourth phase would soon be launched to cover farmers with above two acres for loans from commercial banks,” he said, reiterating his demand for the Centre to support the farmers through a national scheme to resolve their problems and in toto implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report.
Expressing satisfaction at the progress made on the anti-drugs campaign front, he pointed out that the Government had already broken the backbone of the menace fulfilling his promise.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister honoured nine punjab police officers with CM’s police medals in recognition of their outstanding performance and discharge of duty with utmost sincerity, dedication and commitment; besides other 100 eminent personalities for outstanding contribution.
The police medals were awarded to Faridkot SSP Raj Bachan Singh Sandhu, DSP Investigation Rupnagar Varinderjit Singh, Inspector SAS Nagar (Mohali) Tarlochan Singh, Inspector PRTC Jahan Khelan, Hoshiarpur Darshan Singh, SI Nitin Narula, SI Fatehgarh Sahib Sarbjit Singh, SI 5th Commando Battalion Bathinda Naresh Kumar, ASI 2nd Commando Bahadurgarh Jaspal Singh, ASI (CR) 5th Commando Battalion Bathinda Anil Kumar.
Rs 150 CR FOR OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF PATIALA CITY
Capt Amarinder Singh announced a slew of infrastructure projects of over Rs 150 crore for the development of Patiala City.
Capt Amarinder, accompanied by his wife and former Union Minister Preneet Kaur, also announced that the State Government would soon launch an Asian Development Bank (ADB) assisted project of Rs 699 crore of canal-based water supply to ensure uninterrupted, clean and safe drinking water for the residents of Patiala city, where the quality of groundwater was not fit for consumption.
Notably, the State Government had already formulated a massive action plan to ensure canal based potable water supply to the residents of Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.