Expressing satisfaction over the landmark development works and historic achievements in all sectors on completion of nine years in power, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal today asserted the state government was on the right track and Punjabis would feel proud of the achievements of SAD-BJP tenure which had made Punjab a leading state.Presenting progress report of the State government, the Deputy Chief Minister said the SAD-BJP coalition had completed 9 years in office and it is an appropriate occasion to inform the people of Punjab about the historic achievements and development works accomplished under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as well as to deflate the malicious propaganda launched by the opposition parties for their vested political interests only to defame Punjab.Mr Badal said when the SAD-BJP government took over the reins in 2007, it had to bear a huge financial burden imposed by the 5th pay commission in its recommendations besides fulfilling some other financial obligations. If proper steps had not been taken at that stage to contain the fluidic finances, Punjab could have slipped into bankruptcy, he said.Deputy Chief Minister further said during the past 9 years the Punjab government had successfully implemented multi-pronged strategy to consolidate its fiscal condition by raising revenue through collection of taxes and curbing debt in order to bring financial prudency in the system. The State's own tax revenues have increased from Rs 36,808 crore during Congress regime to 1.68 lakh crore during the last nine years, he said.In addition to this, Mr Badal said the government had also taken various steps for provisioning of basic amenities, infrastructure, power generation and implementation of administrative reforms to fulfil the commitments made to the electorate.In addition to this, the government had also taken various steps for provisioning of basic amenities to all, infrastructure, power generation and implementation of administrative reforms in civil, police and industry sector for quick delivery of services to fulfil the commitments made to the electorate.
The Deputy CM elaborated the distinction between reality and propaganda launched by opposition regarding drugs, fiscal and governance position of the state. Making picture clearer regarding revenue receipts, Mr Badal said that 5 year rule of previous congress government yielded only Rs. 36,808 crore whereas during 2007-12, this figure was Rs. 68,757 crore which rose to Rs. 99,741 crore during 2012 untill now.Comparing excise collections Mr Badal said that excise taxes during congress regime were Rs 1,429 crore in 2002 which decreased to Rs 1,368 crore till 2007. In stark contrast by the end of the first term of SAD-BJP rule, excise collections had jumped to Rs 2,755 crore and are expected to be Rs 5,100 crore this year.Deputy CM expressed that Punjab has done extremely well on all other economic indicators also. Punjab's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had increased from Rs 5.04 lakh crore during Congress rule to Rs 23.60 lakh crore during the last nine years. When the Congress demitted office in 2007 the GDP was 1.27 lakh crores. In the next five years during SAD-BJP rule it doubled to Rs 2.59 lakh crore (2012) and presently this year it is Rs 3.98 lakh crore.Explaining discrimination in ratio of devolution of taxes to revenue he said it was 29 per cent in case of Punjab whereas the same was 76 per cent in case of Uttar Pradesh, 81 per cent in case of Jharkhand and 120 per cent in case of Bihar. "We were penalised for our efficiencies during UPA rule", Mr Badal said.Urging the opposition parties not to mislead people by stating random figures he said that productive debt had stimulated overall growth and was good for the State. He added that even progressive nations took productive debt to bolster their economies. Clearing the mist over the misnomer that Punjab was burdened with heavy debt, the Deputy CM stated that Punjab was still amongst the least indebted states in the country.
The deputy chief minister also disclosed the innovative mode in which Punjab had geared itself to give the best possible facilitation to investors in the world. He said in a unique and revolutionary step, the State had created a Punjab Investment Promotion Bureau whose CEO had the powers of 23 departments. “Never has such an experiment even been tried elsewhere”, he said adding the step was already bearing fruit. Listing the major achievements, he said the Punjab had achieved the distinction of only power surplus state in the country and leading the nation in providing 24x7 electricity supply to every household across the state. In addition to this, Punjab is the only State providing free power to its farmers and doles about Rs 4,700 crore every year in lieu of this subsidy to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). Besides, the power utility - PSPCL, which was in loss before 2007, had been made a profitable PSU and awarded with the best distribution utility in the country.
On this astounding achievement Deputy Chief Minister said Punjab was power deficit with 6201 mw production before 2007 when SAD-BJP government took over. The previous Congress regime had not added any unit of electricity into the state power production. But after taking over in 2007 we had added 5,603 mw units of power at a capital investment of Rs. 30,000 crore.With a view to make power available at the cheapest rates for new investors, the State is coming out with a policy whereby all new investors would be supplied power below Rs 4.99 per unit. This is a bold move considering most States are supplying power to industrial sector at rates ranging from Rs 7 to Rs 10 per unit.Badal said motorways are recognized as an infrastructure critical to social, economic and agricultural growth of the State and to meet the growing need of road infrastructure, Punjab government has laid a major thrust to improve the road network and a whooping investment of Rs 28,678 crore had been made on different 4/6 laning projects whereas Congress had spent only Rs. 3,000 crore on construction of roads.
In fact, there is a complete transformation in the national highway network in the State with the coming up of 17 different 4/6 laning motorways spanning a length of 1,369 kms at a cost of Rs. 18,761 crore besides maintenance and up-gradation of highways costing Rs. 1,474 crore and ROBs/RUBs at a cost of Rs, 1,600 crore. "This would definitely provide an impetus to the State economy and make a significant difference in trucking logistics with increase in average road speed," he emphasised.He said Punjab had made rapid strides during the SAD-BJP regime in the field of civil aviation with the sole aim of providing excellent air connectivity to the public thereby saving their precious time, money and energy. "The state had recently joined the premier league of few states to have two international airports with the commissioning of international airport at SAS Nagar, and Amritsar international airport. Besides this, Punjab government has been making efforts to start domestic flight operations from Bathinda and Sahnewal (Ludhiana) civil airports soon. In addition to this, Punjab has also been pursuing the union government to allow civil flight operations from army airport at Adampur near Jalandhar and Pathankot.Focusing on administrative reforms, he said the Punjab government had introduced e-Governance initiatives to provide faster and reliable services to the citizens in a transparent, time bound and hassle free manner.
Badal said corruption is prevalent in every sphere in our country but it could be contained not by making the legislations but implementing IT solutions thereby minimizing the interface between officials and public for fast delivery of citizen centric services. He said “My aim is to make the Punjab ‘not inline but online’ and under this mission the state-of-the-art 2174 Sewa Kenders were being set up costing Rs. 2000 crore for delivery of government to citizen (G2C) and business to citizen (B2C) services in rural as well as urban areas at a cost of Rs.450 crore. Besides this, 164 Fard Kendars, 132 Suvidha Kendars and 500 Saanjh Kendars were already providing services to the public.Commenting on drubbing the Punjabis as druggists by the opposition he said that it was the Punjab government who have confiscated huge quantities of narcotics smuggling from across the international border which were to deliver in other states. He said instead AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal should thank Punjab government for its concerted efforts in seizing huge amounts of drugs before it could reach Delhi, adding he said Punjab was fighting nation's war to curb the menace of narco-terrorism.Interacting with media he informed that known Ayurveda firm- 'Patanjali' has shown keen interest to setup a food processing unit at Ludhiana besides leading company ITC would expand its operations at food park Kapurthala which would become Asia's biggest food processing plant.Among others present on the occasion included media advisor to Deputy CM Jangveer Singh, special principal secretary to Deputy CM Manvesh Sidhu and Rahul Tewari.