Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, November 20: Welcoming the decision of the Parkash Singh Badal government to start recruitment to fill up posts lying vacant for years, the Punjab Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today demanded that White Paper be brought out on state’s financial position as the government has not been able to release even the installment of dearness allowance to the employees that is overdue.
“You must make it clear as to how various announcements made by the government after the cabinet meeting are to be funded. The state government has been running on deficit over the years and the total debt including that of the public sector undertakings has crossed Rs 2 lakh crore. The government has been slipping on every promise. The people have a right to know whether the government has resources or it is going to add to the already burgeoning debt burden”, Mr Bajwa Asked the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal while also referring to Rs 187 crore provision that has been made for taking people on pilgrimage on government expense.
He said Bathinda, the bastion of the Badal family, had turned into city of protests like the Tiananmen Square of Beijing over the years with various categories of employees camping there including school teachers who don’t get their salaries on time. The government should desist from playing games and come out with the facts of the situation through White Paper.
He pointed that that the Badal government has finally implemented the poll promise of doubling the social security pensions at the end of its fourth year but the fact of the matter is that it has miserably failed to pay even Rs 250 per month regularly and has been running in arrears for months. The dalit students don’t get scholarships on time. Hospitals are without basic facilities like medicines, what to talk of manpower. This is what raises doubts about the intentions of the government.
“Going by the mass upsurge against the government that has been witnessed during the last two months, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal have realized the grassroots reality and hence they are not bothered about the long term consequences of their decisions without making provisions for resource mobilization. The Akali Dal-BJP government can’t buy votes this way as it is the people who have to bear the debt burden”, he added.
Referring to the decision to amend the law concerned provide for life imprisonment for the crime of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, he said the ambit of this law should be widened to include the religious scriptures of Hindus, Muslims and Christians also.
At the same time, he pointed out such provisions would be deterrent only in case the culprits were arrested. The irony was that the government had not only miserably failed to trace the Bir missing from Burj Jawahar Singhwala on June 1 but also those involved in the subsequent case of sacrilege at Bargari. The government went to the extent of framing two innocent brothers belong to Panjgrain in this case but got exposed and they had to be released.
