State will flourish under NDA: Badal; Expresses gratitude for inclusion of Punjab in Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojna

State will flourish under NDA: Badal

Expresses gratitude for inclusion of Punjab in Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojna

SWAT thrust to Chief Minister’s security

• The Israel-trained Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team of the state police has now been added to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s security.
• The Chief Minister already has Z plus security cover that comprises National Security Guard (NSG) commandos.
• A SWAT commando told The Tribune during the CM’s Sangat Darshan in Lambi today that their 12-member unit had been deployed with Badal.
• “This is our first day with the Chief Minister. We are happy that the CM has posed faith on us and made us part of his security cover,” said a SWAT commando.

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• CM meets Union Ministers, returns ‘empty-handed’

• Mishap involving Badal bus ends in compromise yet again

• In Muktsar, schools double up as community centres

• Cong seeks probe into ‘insecticides scam’

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SWAT commandos stand guard during the Chief Minister's Sangat Darshan programme in the Lambi assembly segment in Muktsar on Tuesday. Tribune photo

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Lambi, August 18

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today thanked the NDA government for inclusion of Punjab in the Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojna which aims at transforming the fortunes of SC population in the state. He alleged in contrast, the Congress-led UPA government had deliberately excluded the state from this scheme despite it having the largest concentration of SC population.

Interacting with the mediapersons on the sidelines of his Sangat Darshan in Lambi, the Chief Minister said he had raised this matter with the UPA government a number of times, but to no avail.

He said the states with far lesser SC population were reaping the benefits of this scheme during the UPA regime even as Punjab was denied the benefit.

“The NDA government has now given its consent to cover the state. Punjab has the highest SC population (32 per cent) in the country as per census 2011. Of 12,168 villages, 2,800 (23.01 per cent) have 50 per cent or more SC population,” he claimed.

He said the scheme would go a long way in providing basic infrastructural facilities such pavement of streets and “firnis”, solar streetlights, hand pumps, toilets, water supply and sewerage in villages across the state.

On CPS Navjot Kaur Sidhu’s allegations, Badal said he had already sanctioned Rs 10 crore as demanded by her for the constituency. “Even if she (Sidhu) seeks more funds for her constituency, her demand will be considered,” he said. He refuted the allegations regarding preferential treatment to any particular city or constituency, saying that the SAD-BJP alliance government was working to ensure overall development of the state without any prejudice or regional disparity.

Empty chairs greet CM 

Arniwala Wazira (Lambi)

Empty chairs at the CM's Sangat Darshan in Muktsar on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had to face a major embarrassment in his own assembly constituency, Lambi, when empty chairs greeted him at  his Sangat Darshan programme at Arniwala Wazira village on Tuesday. A number of chairs installed at the venue remained unoccupied. Later, when the CM reached the venue, security guards were directed to stand before the empty chairs, so that the CM could not see them.

However, a senior SAD leader accompanying the CM said, “A majority of the people were busy in getting subsidised ration being distributed by the Food and Civil Supplies Department in the village, so they could not come to the Sangat Darshan programme.”

Courtesy: The Tribune