Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, November 8: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end the discrimination from this state that had been subjected to this treatment since the days of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“The announcement of Rs 80,000 crore grant by the Prime Minister to Jammau and Kashmir is welcomed. However, Punjab too urgently needs such package as the economy of this once the most prosperous state is on the verge of collapse which, of course, is also the result of non-governance, corruption and mafia rule under the Akali Dal-BJP regime”, he added.
Manpreet said the Prime Minister had visited Punjab twice and on both the occasions, his visit ended up as big disappointment to the Punjabis as he did not even give any hint of taking care of the needs of the state where his own party is in alliance like in Jammu and Kashmir.
He pointed out that the ruination of Punjab started with the grant of special industrial concessions to the neighbouring hilly states by the Vajpayee government when Sukhbir Singh Badal was the Union Minister of State for Industries and it caused capital flight from Punjab. Of course, there could also be some other reasons that had proved to be deterrent for the entrepreneurs. He said the greed to monopolise businesses like transport, cable transmission and the like by the ruling family and the mafia raj under which industrialists were being subjected to extortions were other negative factors.
He said however, the issue was that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had all along been promising a sea change so far as the attitude of the centre towards Punjab was concerned with the change in regime but the situation had only worsened as this state was no more on the agenda of the Modi government.
He said that situation in the state was already chaotic and it was heading towards anarchy and partly it was due to agrarian crisis and non-availability of employment and self-employment avenues. This was the high time that the centre rushed in with rescue kit before the situation worsened further, he added.
