Reacting to Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa’s remarks that Capt Amarinder Singh government is mainly working for Patiala and ex-servicemen instead of entire Punjab, Chief Minister’s advisor lt General TS Shergill on Sunday argued that the brave soldiers were given the responsibility to check corruption.
It was for the first time that any state government has appointed the ex-servicemen to keep a close check on implementation of its various schemes, said Shergill.
Bajwa, of late, had attacked Capt Amarinder for concentrating on his home constituency and the soldiers instead of the whole Punjab. “He is the Chief Minister of Punjab and not only Patiala,” he had stated.
Admitting that Capt Amarinder government was paying a lot of attention to the ex-servicemen, Shergill said that these warriors and soldiers have been given the responsibility of preventing corruption in government schemes.
Shergill, talking to the former soldiers to be deployed at district, tehsil and village level for the purpose under Punjab Government’s ambitious ‘Guardians of Governance’ scheme, said that it has been seen that the complete benefits of social security schemes hardly reaches the actual beneficiaries.
“Be it a scheme by the Centre or State Government, it has been seen that the real beneficiary get only 15 paise out of rupee. If the beneficiary gets the entire amount, and system works properly, the six-year work can take place in just one year,” he said.
He told the ex-servicemen that they were warriors and a leader, and that was why they have been selected for the purpose.
“Punjab’s prosperity will now be their responsibility. Ex-servicemen will keep a close eye on not only the government schemes, but also keep a strict vigil on the shortcomings came to their notice in schemes or any development work at the village level too, and report to the government,” he added.
Shergill said that now the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder has given the ex-servicemen the task of giving a continuous feed back to the government to ensure that there would be no corruption in government schemes, proper utilisation of funds, and benefits reaches the actual beneficiaries.