- Separate department for employment generation to be set
up
- Youth development board to come into
being
- Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda to be commissioned in four
years
- Separate department of NRIs headed by an administrative secretary to be
created
- Punjabi Parvasi Bharati Divas to be celebrated every
year
- 24-hour uninterrupted power supply to industry in three or less
years
- 5000 MW additional generation of power
to be added in five years
- Adarsh schools in each block of Punjab
|
Chandigarh, March 19
Punjab needs a special Central package, bigger in magnitude than the packages given to other states, to tide over its agricultural crisis, besides securing the merger of Chandigarh and other Punjabi-speaking areas with the state.
On the rivers issue, it will continue to secure justice for the state along the nationally and internationally accepted Riparian principle. It also needs greater Central focus as it has always borne the brunt of aggression of invaders.
These are some of the contagious and sensitive issues raised by Governor S.F. Rodrigues in his Address to the 13th Punjab Vidhan Sabha here this afternoon.
In his 32-page Address, the Governor said though his state wanted cordial relations with all states, especially those in its neighbourhood, and would do nothing to jettison the goodwill so necessary for mutual welfare, at the same time it would accept no dispensation that violated the Riparian principle on the distribution of river waters.
Maintaining that his government would take decisions guided by the sentiment of good neighbourly conduct, he said it would be willing to help others in all possible ways without compromising on the rights and vital long-term
interests of its people. Interestingly, the Address did not mention amendment to Section 5 of the Annulment of Water Agreements Act of 2004.
Taking a dig at the previous Congress government in the state, the General said the past few years saw the breakdown of law and order and collapse of the rule of law as the government resorted to “brazenly draconian measures to curb the citizens’ right to peaceful and democratic expression of their grievances. Even girl students, women doctors, nurses and senior citizens did not escape the reign of repression.
The new SAD-BJP government, he said, viewed with concern the growing spectre of unemployment, poverty, price rise, social and economic inequality and deprivation in the state.
“A major all-round assault on unemployment was needed. My government does not view the problem as uni-dimensional, but as one that impacts on every area of governance and development,” he said, claiming that the new government had inherited a sagging economy that had registered a growth rate of less than 2 per cent against the growth rate of 8.99 per cent at the national level.
The new government, he said, would lay stress on enhancing the growth in all sectors, including industry, agriculture and trade, besides improving power supply, revamping the education system and making health care friendly to poor.
“It is a conscious attempt to move away from the polity of superficial glitter to substance, from the pseudo mega culture to the bare needs of day-to-day existence, without in any way neglecting the long-term larger picture. At the core of this agenda is the need to put the common Punjabi, especially the poor and the backward, at the centrestage of our approach and governance,” he said.
Talking about the challenges faced by the new regime, he said it was the injection of bitterness, personal as well as political, into the affairs of the state.
“In the recent past,considerable time and energy in the state’s public life have been wasted on political witch hunts and vendetta by those in power. Character assassination, which had never been a component of Punjabi culture, became the norm. Bureaucracy was politicised and politics criminalised for the first time in the history of the state,” the Governor said.
The new government, he maintained, had already taken the initiative to reduce tensions and would not hesitate to move one step ahead of others in increasing the bonds of political cooperation for the welfare of the people.
“It calls for an all-party consensus, on some minimum standards of decorum and dignity, in the conduct of public figures. The new government will make a transparent and corruption-free administration the cardinal principle in its approach to
governance. The past five years have been a serious disconnect, between the people and the government as rulers became inaccessible not only to the people but also to their representatives,”he said.
For the new government, “accessibility is the cornerstone on which the edifice of its relationship of trust and mutual affection with the people rests. The sangat darshan sums up my government’s view of its relationship with the people and the deep respect with which it views every Punjabi,” said the Governor.
