Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday welcomed reports that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had instructed the Niti Aayog to make an assessment and formulate a plan for debt waiver.
It was heartening to see the Central Government also moving towards the waiver of the debts of the beleaguered farmers around the country, said Capt Amarinder adding that the Punjab government had already initiated the debt waiver process in the state.
The reports came a day after Capt Amarinder raised the farm debt waiver issue with the Prime Minister on Wednesday.
Reiterating his commitment to farm loan waiver, Capt Amarinder said that he had received an extremely warm response from both, Prime Minister Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, whom he met in New Delhi.
Captain Amarinder, speaking on a variety of issues in a television interview, ruled out any vendetta politics against the Akalis. He said that his priority was development of Punjab rather than indulging in a vicious cycle of vendetta, and he wanted an end to the era of confrontation.
“Unlike the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, which had stopped all projects initiated during the earlier Congress rule, his government would continue to support all ongoing projects in the welfare of the people,” he added.
Chief Minister said that though Congress vice president had been somewhat skeptical about the party’s chances of victory in Punjab, he was eventually extremely happy with the result of the state assembly polls.
Capt Amarinder said that he had received full support from the party high command in the matter of allocation of tickets. He reiterated the need to develop regional leaders to counter the growing influence of regional parties to ensure the survival of national parties.
On Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said that the absence of a chief ministerial face cost it heavily in Punjab, with people suspecting that Arvind Kejriwal himself wanted the top post. Despite the hype on social media, AAP failed to build a presence on the ground, which led to its defeat in the polls, he added.
Not agreeing that there could be problems with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the polls, Capt Amarinder said that there was need to analyze why some of the most advanced countries were not using such machines in the conduct of their elections.
Capt Amarinder termed the poll result as a mandate against the Akalis and an endorsement of the hard work of the Congress workers, backed by the central leadership. It was a collective victory, which could not be attributed to any single person, he said, adding that the people had voted for stability and experience.
Reiterating his government’s resolve to review all SAD decisions of last six months of their rule and to set up a commission to probe all false cases registered by the Akalis against innocent people during their regime, he, however, ruled out setting up a commission to investigate corruption cases while asserting that an inquiry would be instituted on any complaint received by his government in this regard.
Referring to the drugs scourge in the state, the Chief Minister reiterated his government’s commitment to its elimination within four weeks, saying that he had directed the officers to go after the drugs dealers and smugglers and not the addicts, who would be treated with compassion.
Accusing the Akalis of shielding the drugs trade, Capt Amarinder said that if Bikram Singh Majithia’s name cropped up in this connection, he would also have to face the consequences like any other person.
Chief Minister said that the task force constituted to tackle the drugs problem had been given a free hand to pursue the matter as they deemed fit. He called for a National Drugs Policy to deal with the problem of the traditional home-grown cannabis.
listing farm debt to the tune of Rs 1.7 lakh crores, revenue deficit, industrial crisis, crop diversification, the mafias and unemployment as other major challenges before his government, Capt Amarinder said that his government had initiated steps to tackle these problems.
He promised an end to transport, cable and TV and other mafias that had been promoted by the Badal government.
Giving jobs and free smartphones were other electoral promises his government would take up on priority, he added, pointing out that his government had already initiated the process of fulfilling more than 120 of the poll promises of his party.
Referring to the halqa incharge system of the Akalis, he said that these had been used by the Badal government to short-circuit the system, which his government would now bring back on track.