Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today categorically said that illegal mining of minor minerals in this region would be dealt with severely and none would be allowed to indulge in this unlawful practice.Addressing the media persons on the sidelines of his Sangat Darshan program in Ropar Assembly segment, the Chief Minister said that he had already directed the SSP Ropar to take stock of the situation and all out efforts should be made to put a stop to this unauthorized mining activity. He said severe of severest punishment would be meted out to those unscrupulous elements, who were carrying out such illegal trade. Without mincing any words, Mr. Badal said that by and large mining activity was being carried out in a lawful manner in the region barring few incidents of illegal mining, which would also be checked with heavy hand in future.
Replying to another query about the allegations leveled by PPCC President Capt. Amarinder Singh regarding the involvement of Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley in targeting him, his family and especially his son Raninder Singh by investigating agencies like Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate (ED), which were directly under his domain, the Chief Minister said that it was even impossible to imagine that a person of such tall stature and repute like Mr. Jaitley could ever stoop so low to settle personal score with him as alleged by Capt. Amarinder Singh. 'It is a sheer frustration on the part of Capt. Amarinder to accuse anyone blindly rather he should be considerate enough to repose faith in the administrative system because ultimately truth will prevail', said Mr. Badal.
On the issue of clean chit given to Jagdish Tytler, the Chief Minister said that everybody knew how the Congress leadership through its stalwarts in New Delhi perpetrated genocide in 1984 against innocent Sikhs by killing them brutally across the country just to teach them a harsh lesson. He said that it was an open secret who was involved in this heinous and unpardonable act and thus any sort of clean chit given to these culprits would never wash their sins off because they would be ever answerable to the Almighty for the excesses committed on the Sikh community.Referring to some objections raised by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on the screening of film 'Udta Punjab', the Chief Minister quipped how the state government could be held responsible for it when the CBFC was exclusively under the control of Government of India.
Reacting to the accusations made by the senior Congress leader Mr. Sunil Jakhar claiming Punjab government's misleading advertisements on central grants to the state, the Chief Minister out rightly said that Mr. Jakhar was beating around the bush just for the sake of cheap politics. He said that had the state have not sufficient funds, how we could have managed to give free power to the farmers worth Rs.5000 crore annually besides launching several pro-farmer initiatives like free health insurance to provide free treatment to them upto Rs.50,000/-. Mr. Badal said, "Moreover, the state government is disbursing development grants worth rupees several crores during the various Sangat Darshan programmes held across the state and if the state was cash strapped, then where this money is coming from?" Apart from this, the state government had already chalked out a massive program to provide the basic facilities of drinking water, sewerage, roads and street lighting and all the towns and cities of the state, which reflects that the state had sufficient funds to carry out their development programmes and welfare schemes.
Earlier, the Chief Minister addressing the people on the Sangat Darshan program said that it was a unique communication model to resolve the grievances of people on the spot besides reposing their faith and confidence in the state administration. He asked the officers to regularly visit the villages during their tour programmes to acquaint themselves with the hardships faced by the people and to solve them permanently. He assured the people that the problem of drinking water and irrigation in this Changar area (sub-mountainous) would be addressed for all times to come as he had already asked the departments of Water Supply & Sanitation and Irrigation to prepare a comprehensive time bound action plan in this regard. He also promised that adequate funds would be released to the district administration to ensure overall development and prosperity in this region to better the lives of people. The Chief Minister was accompanied by the MLA Ropar and Education Minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Dr. S. Karunaraju, Deputy Commissioner Ropar Mr. Karnesh Sharma and SSP Ropar Mr. Varinder Pal Singh.