Claiming that the ‘sins’ of successive Congress Governments at the Centre cannot be washed away overnight, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said on Sunday, adding that despite all odds, the NDA Government has done ‘exemplary work’ in a short span of one year.
“The sins of successive Congress Governments which ruled the country for more than six decades cannot be washed away overnight,” he said after laying the foundation of several development projects in ludhiana.
Chief Minister, while congratulating the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘successful’ one year in office, lauded him for launching several pro-poor schemes within this short span.
The five-time Chief Minister said: “No other Government at the Centre has ever initiated such pro-people schemes in a short span of one year.” Badal said that under NDA, Punjab has immensely benefited from it.
He said that the Union Government has given several key projects to the State, which would be instrumental in putting the State further on high growth trajectory.
He hailed the NDA Government for allocating prestigious projects like All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Post Graduate Horticulture Research and Educational Institute.
Replying to a query, the Chief Minister reiterated the firm commitment of the State Government to maintain law and order. “Sporadic incidents of law and order problem are persistent in every State and even the advanced countries like the USA are not aloof from it,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that his Government was committed to ensuring speedy payments of VAT refund to traders and industrialists. “The matter is under due consideration of the State Government and payments of traders or entrepreneurs would be made very soon,” he said.
To a query, the Chief Minister said that the State’s farmers had immensely benefited from the NDA Government as accepting the demand of the State Government, the Centre has now revised the relief norms to the distressed farmers for the crop damage due to natural calamities across the country.
“Now, the farmers will be eligible for input subsidy if 33 per cent of their crop has been damaged instead of earlier norms of 50 per cent or more,” he said.
However, Badal said that it was not enough as the compensation of the crop loss must be rationalised and brought at par with the amount of loss. “Above all, introduction of crop insurance scheme is the need of the hour to save farmers from the current agrarian crisis,” he added.
Earlier, addressing a gathering, the Chief Minister termed the SAD-BJP alliance Government as the ‘most secular Government in the country’.