Batala, 2 October(Wishav Warta): Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal today announced that the Capt Amarinder Singh government is committed to generate five lakh jobs per year to fulfill the promise of providing 25 lakh jobs to the people in five years. He said he was also the minister for employment generation.
Addressing a series of political conferences in half a dozen villages falling in Fatehgarh Churian segment in support of Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll the polling for which is slated for October 11, Manpreet said unlike former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who had promised loan waiver to the farmers in 2006 but conveniently forgot after forming the government in 2007, the Congress government in the state had already started implementing most of the promises made in the manifesto.
“We have already decided to provide relief of Rs 2 lakh to each and every farmer having upto five acres of land as part of the loan waiver. We had made this promise and now we have implemented it and none should be in doubt about it. The formal notification has been delayed in view of the election code and it was being taken care of”, he asserted.
The finance minister said the real development would be by raising the standard of living of the people and this would be done by generating jobs and capital investment rather than building only bridges and roads. The government had initiating programmes for adding to the income of the farmers and workers for their all-round development. He recalled it was the Congress that had the record of bringing about changes in the life of the people by undertaking such gigantic projects like Bhakra dam and Chandigarh and setting up Punjabi and Punjab Agriculture universities.
He underscored that industry in Batala and Dhariwal in Gurdaspur district would be revived
He lashed out the immediate and extended family of Parkash Singh Badal by giving a call to the people to dump them once and for all as it was this family that was responsible for all ills that afflicted this once the most prosperous state. It was the Badal government that ruled Punjab for 15 out of 20 years. He said the Akali Dal president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and former minister and his brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia has surpassed the loot of India by the Mughal and then British rulers. All five members of this family enjoyed every benefit by being in government while lakhs of youth were searching for jobs to sustain themselves.
He gave a call to the people to make the right choice by electing Sunil Jakhar.
Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa said none would be discriminated in the matter of providing relief to the people like subsidised atta-daal, old age pensions and MNREGA. He said the days of excesses were over and everyone would get justice.
Patti MLA Harminder Singh Gill said the Congress victory in Gurdaspur would herald change to throw out the oppressive and anti-people BJP regime headed by Narendra Modi in 2019.
