Describing Punjab’s inclusion to Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojana as ‘well deserved’ gift to the State, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday said that the NDA Government has decided to include Punjab under the scheme aimed at transforming fortunes of SC population in the State, whereas Congress-led UPA Government had deliberately excluded the State from this scheme despite largest concentration of SC population here.
Badal, interacting with the mediapersons on the sidelines of his Sangat Darshan at Phulu Khera village in lambi Assembly segment, said that he had personally raised this issue with the UPA Government a number of times earlier but no heed was paid towards this genuine demand of the State Government.
“States with far less SC population than Punjab were reaping the benefits of this scheme during the UPA regime but the State was deliberately denied benefits under this scheme which was grave injustice with millions of SC brethren. However, after the change of guard at the Centre, the NDA government has given its consent to include state under this scheme,” he said.
The Chief Minister, while expressing gratitude to the NDA government, said that Punjab was the most deserving state with highest SC population (32 percent) in the country as per 2011 Census and out of the total number of 12,168 inhabited villages, 2,800 villages (23.01 percent) have 50 percent or more SC population.
Badal said: “This scheme would go a long way in providing the basic infrastructural facilities like pavement of streets and phirnis, solar street lights, hand pumps, toilets, water supply and sewerage in the villages across the state. As Sri Muktsar Sahib district is having the largest concentration of SC populace, 50 villages from the district have been chosen under this scheme.”