PUNJAB CM for scrapping all centrally sponsored schemes

Chandigarh, March 18, 2013: The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called for a nation-wide political initiative to recast the Constitution along federal lines, scrapping of all central schemes and make a provision for direct transfer of 50% of central taxes to states.

Winding up the debate on the Governor's address in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Badal also impressed upon for an end to the politics of confrontation and starting of an era of political consensus for taking the state forward on the path to progress and getting its long pending demands settled. The Chief Minister asked the Centre to desist from usurping the powers vested in states by the constitution of India under state’s list. He pleaded the fixation of Agriculture inputs and MSP, upgradation of schools, allocation of funds under the National Rural/Urban Health Mission and allotment of link roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna etc. should be solely left to the states so that they could prioritise these projects according to the felt needs of the people.    

Pleading for the scrapping of centrally sponsored schemes which were arbitrarily based on the parameters suited to the Centre, the Chief Minister asked the Union government to transfer the funds directly to the states as Untied Funds and Direct Grants to enable them to formulate schemes. He cited Central government retained 67.5% of all the tax collected and merely 32.5% was devolved to the states. Badal vehemently said, “Shiromani Akali Dal is the maiden political party which raised the voice for a federal set up and devolution of funds to the states in the right earnest could be a step for achieving this goal”.

The Chief Minister rued the grave injustice meted out to Punjab by the successive Congress governments at the Centre adding he said refusal of Punjabi speaking areas and transfer of Chandigarh to the state and denial of legitimate share of river waters in accordance with universally accepted Riparian Law were the testimony to it. Demanding immediate transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi speaking areas to Punjab and early resolution of river waters, Mr Badal said that Punjab could no longer be denied its justified right over these contentious inter-state territorial issues. The constant saga of apathy has not yet ended here and now the UT administration of Chandigarh was tinkering with the prevalent system of maintaining 60:40 ratio of posting officers from Punjab and Haryana in Chandigarh administration till it was not transferred to Punjab. Mr Badal also mentioned that UT administration of Chandigarh was flouting the norms despite without any provision of its cadre or recruitment.  Earlier the post of Chief Commissioner was held by Punjab cadre IAS Officer however it was abolished by the Centre during militancy and consequently Punjab Governor was made ex-officio administrator and UT Cadre IAS officer has been appointed his Advisor ever since.

Bemoaning the denial of justice to the victims of 1984 anti Sikh riots, the Chief Minister appealed the Centre through this house to bring to book the guilty of this heinous crime. He said Congress party instead of punishing the guilty has rewarded the perpetrators with plump posts in the Government and the party. Badal sought exemplary punishment to the guilty of 1984 riots without any further delay.  

Banking upon his foremost agenda to ensure peace, communal harmony, brotherhood, development and clean administration, the Chief Minister categorically said that the spectacular victory of Dasuya and Moga by-elections with huge margins was reflective of people’s unstinted support and faith in the pro-development policies of SAD-BJP alliance government. Continuing the spree of winning different elections, he also pointed out SAD’s unprecedented performance in capturing the control of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) by winning 37 out of 46 seats in the recently concluded elections was again an outcome of party’s firm belief in the ethos of mankind.

Seeking co-operation and support from the opposition, the Chief Minister appealed them to sink their differences for the overall development of the state and the well being of its people. Badal said that he always held the opposition in high esteem and adopted a constructive approach towards them thereby impressing upon them to work collectively for the betterment of Punjab rising above the narrow and vested political affiliations.  He said, “Our party had completely vanished the atmosphere of vendetta and confrontation, which was once the order of the day during Congress regime prior to formation of SAD-BJP alliance government in 2007”. The Chief Minister urged Congress with all humility to shun the path of confrontation to usher an era of politics of consensus to take peace, communal harmony and development in Punjab to zenith. Badal said, “The confrontation is the flagship scheme of the Congress, which is unfortunate”

The Chief Minister said; "The overall development seen in the state during the SAD-BJP alliance government over the past six years has no parallel in the history of the state and was rapidly poised to become the frontrunner state in the country”. The unprecedented development coupled with the pro-people policies has paid rich dividends to the SAD-BJP alliance in creating a history by coming to power for the second consecutive term. He assured the unaccomplished development agenda of the state set out in its previous term would be taken out to its logical conclusion in the current term zealously. He however said that all the development projects and pro-people welfare schemes would be implemented to cherish the aspirations of the people.

Listing out the achievements and priorities of his government briefly, the Chief Minister promised a ‘New Punjab’ with a modern outlook having world class social and physical infra structure within next four years. He said that ‘New Punjab’ would be the outcome of the state government’s sheer initiative and pragmatic approach through its pro-people and development oriented policies.    

Badal demanded that the Union government should immediately enhance the allocation of Crop Diversification to Rs 5,000 crore, from meager Rs 500 crore for the Green Revolution states as announced by the Union Finance Minister in his budget speech, on the pattern of already sanctioned Rs 4,000 crore to the eastern states under bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India. He also advocated that the MSP of the crops should be fixed keeping in view the recommendations of National Farmers Commission headed by Dr. Swaminathan which recommended that MSP should provide the farmers a margin of 50% over the cost of production. He mentioned that even the criteria for allocation of funds under RKVY were highly discriminatory adding that though the state contributed about 35-40% rice to the central pool, it had not been included in National Food Security Mission for Rice. Even in National Food Security Mission for wheat, only 10 districts of the state have been covered.

On the Power sector, the Chief Minister renewed his commitment that Punjab would soon become a power surplus state with the commissioning of all units of three thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal Sahib to be  functional by May 2014. He said that Transmission and Distribution losses had been reduced from 22.53% to 17.50% thereby saving nearly Rs 2,000 crore.

The Chief Minister said that strenuous efforts have been made to revamp the education infrastructure at all levels be it school, college and university.  Apart from Central University at Bathinda seven new private universities have been started and equal number of letters of intent has been issued for other private universities. As many as 18 new degree colleges have been opened and two more were being opened in Amargarh in Sangrur and Jalalabad in Fazilka districts. It’s a matter of great pride that Punjab had been rated first in “Composite Education Development Index of India” in 2010-2011 from its earlier 14^thrank in the year 2005-2006.  Nearly 61000 school teachers had been appointed since 2007 and process was on to recruit 5622 more besides services of 17,000 school teachers had been regularised and 7654 would be regularised soon.

Dwelling on the initiatives taken by the state government to strengthen Health and Medical infrastructure, the Chief Minister said that Punjab State Cancer and De-addiction treatment infrastructure fund has been created to eradicate the menace of cancer on one hand and to wean away the youth from the scourge of drug addiction. Tata Memorial Cancer hospital would come up at Mullanpur near Chandigarh at a cost of Rs 450 crore and the 50 acre land has already been allotted free of cost for setting up of this state of the art cancer hospital. Rs 300 crore had been spent for the up gradation of infra structure to provide the best treatment to the cancer patients in Government medical colleges besides 100 bedded Cancer hospital was being set up in Bathinda at a cost of Rs 68 crore. Likewise the Chief Minister’s cancer relief fund has been enhanced from Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore.

On the law and order front, the Chief Minister said that the Punjab government was committed to ensure safety and security of women in the state and was far ahead of almost all the states of the region to implement path breaking initiatives in this behalf. 20 fast track courts have been sanctioned for speedy trial of gender related crimes. Strict instructions had been issued by the Home Department for not calling any women to Police stations and all ladies to be examined at their residence in the presence of their family by the Police authorities accompanied by a lady Police officer. Government has also mooted a proposal to have a lady gazetted officer and adequate constables in each Police station. The government had already approved to recruit six lady DSPs, 36 Inspectors, 338 Sub Inspectors and 1200 constables over a period of next three years.

To ensure planned and integrated urban development, the Chief Minister said for the first time master plans for cities had been formulated adding that 32 master plans had already been notified and 18 would be notified within a year and 40 more would be notified in next three years. A Medicity over an area of 250 acre at Mullanpur near Chandigarh was being developed. Ludhiana Metro Rail project had been approved at a cost of Rs 9840 crore and its Detailed Project Report has been submitted to the Government of India. A project of City Bus Service at a cost of Rs 98 crore has been launched thereby adding a fleet of 350 buses in Amritsar and Ludhiana. Strenuous efforts have been made to cover all the villages and Dhanis across the state with quality potable drinking water supply by December 2014 at 70 litres per person per day. Out of 15170 total villages and Dhanis, 7085 had been covered during over government at accost of Rs 1664 crore.      

Showing satisfaction over the tremendous increase in the VAT and Excise the Chief Minister said that the Revenue from VAT had gone up to Rs 12000 crore in 2011-2012 as compared to Rs 5136 crore in 2006-2007 during Congress regime which was likely to touch Rs 14700 crore in 2012-2013. Likewise the Excise Collection was expected to be Rs 3400 crore in 2012-2013 as compared to Rs 1363 crore in 2006-2007 during the Congress regime. This increase was further likely to touch a mark of Rs 4020 crore in 2013-14.  Referring to the annual plan size Mr Badal pointed out that it was just Rs 4000 crore during 2006-2007 which was the last year of Congress regime whereas we enhanced it to Rs 14000 crore in 2012-2013 and further intend to take it up to Rs 16123 crore in 2013-2014.

Referring to the remarkable progress made by SAD-BJP government for strengthening and up gradation of the Road infra structure, the Chief Minister said that nearly Rs 10000 crore was being spent on the four laning of eight road projects across the state besides Rs 750 crore on the Railway over and under bridges. A sum of Rs 1700 crore would be spent on the repair of all the link roads within one year and 1000 kilometers of link roads would be upgraded under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.

Reiterating the commitment of the state government to ensure the welfare of disadvantaged sections of the society, the Chief Minister said that the state was having the highest concentration of Schedule Caste population in the country. He said that Punjab was the first state to implement the Shagun Scheme for SCs which has now been extended to Christians, BCs, Muslims, Weaker Sections and Widows. He said that the Congress Government in  their regime from 2002-07 has disbursed a meager amount of Rs 90 Crore for this purpose but after taking over reigns SAD-BJP Government (2007-13) has distributed Shaguns worth Rs 407 Crore adding that number of beneficiaries has also increased manifolds from 95000 in Congress Government (2002-07) to 2,36,000 in SAD-BJP Government (2007-13). He said that apart from it the 19.94 lakh beneficiaries were getting pensions every month by the state government. The government has successfully implemented the Atta Dal scheme covering 15.20 lakh beneficiaries at an annual expenditure of nearly Rs 300 crore.

To perpetuate the rich legacy of our cultural heritage amongst our younger generations, the state government had approved to construct Jang-e-Azaadi memorial at Kartarpur to showcase the immense contribution of Punjabis in the national freedom struggle. Likewise, the Government had already given nod to construct Guru Ravidass Memorial at Khuralgarh, Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal at Amritsar besides Swami Vivekanand Memorial, War Memorial at Amritsar, Moti Ram Mehra Memorial at Fatehgarh Sahib, Baba Jiwan Singh Yaadgar and Swami Birja Nand Yaadgar at Kartarpur were under active consideration.  A state of the art Rs. 78 crore project of Golden Temple Entrance Plaza was in the advanced stage of completion.  The Chief Minister stated as per Government of India report Punjab has been ranked as 12^th in tourism sector in the country from the earlier 28th position in the Congress regime.

Making a firm resolve to tackle the problem of unemployment which has posed the biggest challenge to the society, the Chief Minister said that his government had created a new department of employment generation and training during the previous regime. A target of imparting skill training to the 50,000 unemployed youth has been fixed through all technical institutes, universities, Polytechnics, ITIs and private industry players besides 30,000 in other departments like Tourism and Rural Development. Apart from this a target of imparting skill training to 12,000 youth has been fixed for the year 2013-2014 through C-PYTE.

Outlining the achievements in Industrial sector, the Chief Minister said that the state government has so far approved 98 Mega projects since 2007 worth Rs 52,614 crore. New Focal points were being developed at Kapurthala and Phase- 8 A and B Mohali. A new investor friendly industrial policy would be announced soon to herald Industrial revolution in the state. Capital Subsidy worth Rs 410 crore has been disbursed. Punjab Industrial facilitation Act had been implemented to ensure sanctions to the entrepreneurs in a fast track manner. Mr Badal stated that since agriculture had already reached at a saturation point and now our hopes were pinned to promote trade, industry and services sector as an alternative.

The state government has focussed special attention for the promotion of sports and made spectacular achievements in this arena. 13 stadiums had been constructed/ upgraded at a cost of Rs 200 crore. Award money had been considerably increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2.5 crore to the sports persons winning Gold Medal in Olympics, from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.01 crore for silver and from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 51 lakh for Bronze medal. Likewise the award money for the Kabaddi world cup had also been hiked to Rs 2 crore, Rs 1 crore and 51 lakh to the winner, first runners up and second runners up besides Rs 10 lakh each for all the participating teams .