Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today questioned the tall claims on the development front made by the Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal saying the daily suicides by the farmers and farm workers mocked at him.
Reacting to yesterday’s presentation by the Deputy Chief Minister on various aspects of the state’s economy, Mr Channi pointed out he had unashamedly overlooked the grim grassroots reality. He asserted development must be accompanied by improvement in quality of life of the common people for whom life had turned only harder and harder. He said the suicides by the farmers in Punjab were the second highest in the country but he did not mention this aspect. He called upon Mr Sukhbir Badal to spell out what was his government doing to take Punjab out of this ever deepening crisis just in the agrarian but also in the industrial sector.
He referred to the precarious financial position saying contrary to the claims, GMADA was raising loans to pay interest on earlier loan. The state government has admitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the total debt burden was likely to go up to Rs 1,24, 471 crore by the end of this financial year. He ridiculed him saying in case the economy had been strong, where was the need for industrialists to seek intervention of the high court to get pending interest subsidy released as the total amount was just a double digit figure.
Mr Channi said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal did not come out with the unemployment rate and as the state had staggering of unemployed that was one of the reasons for the youth turning to drugs about which he took refuge in the denial mode. He suggested to the Deputy Chief Minister to go to any village in his own area without his security paraphernalia and talk to the people to understand the gravity of situation and the extent of drug menace.
He lambasted the Deputy Chief Minister on the power front too arguing the state had turned power surplus at the cost of public sector plants which have to be shut down to purchase power from these private thermal plants. He said there was more to it than met the eye as the power from these private plants was being purchased at a much higher rate.
