Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal honouring one of the 22 Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committee with a cash prize and memento at Kisan Bhawan, Chandigarh on Thursday Chief Parliamentary Secretary Virsa Singh Valtoha is also seen in the picture.
Chandigarh, April 25, 2013: Taking strong exception to the media reports of intrusion by the Chinese armed forces in the territory of Indian Border, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Centre to act swiftly with resilience and commitment to prevent the further movement of Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Talking to the media persons on the side lines of a function jointly organised by the State Water Supply and Sanitation Department and World Bank to honour 22 Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committees here at Kisan Bhawan, the Chief Minister in unequivocally terms said that the Centre should not be complacent on the issue of safeguarding nation’s territorial integrity. At the same time he cautioned the Government of India (GoI) to immediately resolve this matter of Chinese incursion across the LAC otherwise it could adversely impact the national security. He however said that the Congress led UPA government had miserably failed in checking the growing cult of internal as well as external aggression.
Citing the problem of Naxalism and wide spread incidents of terrorism in different parts of the country, the Chief Minister said that it was an alarming signal which had already put our sovereignty in peril. He urged the GoI especially the Ministry of Defence to initiate all possible measures in defending the Indian borders besides maintaining national security at all costs.
Slamming the Centre for arbitrarily thrusting its decision to impose wealth tax on the Agricultural land within the jurisdiction of Municipal limits, the Chief Minister termed it as a ‘Retrograde step’ to crush the distressed peasantry due to low returns from agriculture as profession. He cited an example of a farmer in Jalandhar who has been rendered bankrupt due to the draconian clause of Wealth tax imposed by the union government. He apprehended that the wealth tax must be abolished by the centre forthwith lest it would ruin the beleaguered farmer, who was already overburdened with heavy debt and several such farmers had forced to commit suicides. Therefore he impressed upon the centre to immediately roll back the decision of wealth tax which had badly hit the farming community adding he said that due to the anti-farmer policies of the UPA, the Punjab farmer was reeling under a heavy debt of Rs 32000 crore and now the levy of this tax would further aggravate the situation.
Replying to another query regarding the proposed investments of Tata group in the state, the Chief Minister said that the Chairperson of Tata Sons Cyrus P Mistry had evinced keen interest in infrastructure, tourism, IT and Agriculture sectors. He said that a joint committee of senior officers of the state government and representatives of the Tata Group would work out modalities in this regard in due course of time.
Earlier addressing the Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committees, the Chief Minister appreciated them for the good work done in this regard and further called upon them to continue their relentless efforts in providing safe potable drinking water in the rural areas to prevent the people from being inflicted with various water borne diseases. He said that the state government has already initiated path breaking steps in this direction and got the 13739 drinking water samples from various sources such as canals, tube well etc. tested, of which 1166 samples could not comply with the stipulated parameters of quality and thus rendered unfit for human consumption. He resolved firmly that it was the endeavor of the state government to provide quality and safe drinking water to each and every citizen of Punjab.
The Chief Minister mentioned that out 15170 villages and Dhanis, 14313 have been covered under the various drinking water schemes and the remainder 857 would be covered during the current fiscal. Making a scathing attack on the officers of the state government indulging in malpractices of corruption and nepotism for favoring sub standard contractors for allotting works for pecuniary motives, Badal said that when our responsible officers and engineers indulge in such immoral activities by wasting the already scarce funds by making use or recommending poor quality material in the execution of the water supply and sanitation schemes in connivance with local contractors was nothing less than a sin which could never be forgiven by anyone even the God. He impressed upon them to work sincerely and diligently with utmost honesty and missionary zeal to serve the mankind because using the spurious quality material in these projects was not only hazardous to the public health but also amounted to sheer wastage of hard earned tax payer’s money.
In his address Principal Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation Suresh Kumar said that the department was committed to provide the quality safe drinking water free from the presence of heavy metals and other poisonous elements in every nook and corner of the state. He urged the people to closely monitor these projects initiated by the department and if they come across any shortcomings or lacunae in the implementation of these schemes these must be brought to our notice instantly for prompt action. Suresh Kumar also asked the officers to work zealously in the larger public interest. He said that there had been 35% increase in the allocation of funds for the implementation of these schemes during the current budget adding that Rs 393 crore would be spent on it during the current fiscal.
On the occasion Chief Parliamentary Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation Virsa Singh Valtoha proposed a vote of thanks saying that today’s function would go a long way in motivating the other village panchayats to replicate the success model of these schemes in their villages and urged them to make judicious use of water by creating awareness amongst the people.
Prominent amongst other present on the occasion included Project Director DS Cheema besides the senior officers of the Water Supply and Sanitation department and World bank.