Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh,Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today flayed the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government in the state for non-utilisation of central grants which, he said, debunked the charge of discrimination levelled repeatedly by the state government against the then Congress led UPA government.
He said day in and day out, the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal had been alleging discrimination against Punjab by Dr. Manmohan Singh government while time and again it had been proved that it was his government that had failed to avail of the central assistance due to its own lethargy and total indifference towards matters of government as the interests were centred elsewhere.
In this context, he referred to the non-utilisation of Rs. 322.16 crore released by the centre last year under the post-matric scholarship scheme for students from minority communities. That was the period when the UA was in power. The Badal government did not use even a single paisa from these funds. He called upon Mr Badal to explain this disinterest of his government in disbursing these funds to the needy students for whom these were meant. He said it was not that the funds were not used as it also pointed towards the attitude of the government towards education. Here was the government which talked of Adarsh Schools but failed to utilise even funds for scholarships.
He said similarly, Rs. 61.22 crore central funds under Integrated Child Development Scheme released last year remained unutilised as the state government was supposed to contribute matching grant. In the wake of non-utilisation, the state government failed to get funds under this head from the centre. Yet another allocation was amounting to Rs. 205.86 crore released last year under the e-governance project. The grant lapsed.
Then there was the case of Rs. 382.95 crore released under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna which again had been lying unused while the rural link roads were in bad shape, virtually non-existent in village after village.
He said Mr Badal must explain to the people as to on what grounds he had been levelling the charge of discrimination against the Dr. Manmohan Singh. He pointed out it was Mr Badal’s own Narendra Modi government which had started tightening the noose rejecting one demand after another, including that of a special package. He said the situation was so desperate that Mr Badal had now stopped visiting the Prime Minister and other ministers at the centre and this despite the fact that his own daughter-in-law was a cabinet minister at the centre. He charged MR Badal with promoting only his family interests at the cost of the state.
