Gulzar Singh Ranike, the newly inducted Minister in the Punjab Cabinet today assumed charge of the Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development Department at Punjab Civil Secretariat-1, in the presence of Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia, Information & Public Relations and Revenue Minister, Punjab. Mr. Virsa Singh Valtoha, Mr. Inderbir Singh Bolaria (both Chief Parliamentary Secretaries), Bibi Jagir Kaur, Mr. Maheshinder Singh Nihal Singh Wala, Mr. Joginder Singh Jindu (MLAs) and Mr. Sarabjit Singh Makkar, Former MLA were also present during the ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia eulogized the effort of the Punjab Government for enhancing record 37 per cent budget for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (SC/BCs) in the state for the year 2013-14. He said that the budget for the welfare of SC/BCs has now been increased from Rs.435 crore to Rs.596 crore. Minister further said that animal husbandry sector has a lot of potential for boosting the agriculture income of the farmers. Mr. Majithia said that an outlay of Rs.110 crore has been fixed for animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries sectors.
Reiterating the Punjab Government’s commitment towards the welfare of SC/BCs, he said that Rs.50 crore has been allocated in the budget to provide houses to the poor homeless scheduled castes population of the state, whereas Rs.237 crore for the SC/BCs students and Rs.28 crore has been allocated in the budget for constructing Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Bhawans in the state.Mr. Gulzar Singh Ranike extended gratitude towards Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister and Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab for reposing faith in him. He said that he would work with full dedication and diligence to uplift the SC/BCs population of the state, besides striving to boost animal husbandry sector and its allied activities.Mr. Prithi Chand, Director, Welfare Department, Mr. Inderjit Singh, Director, Dairy Development and Dr. H.S. Sandha, Director, Animal Husbandry Department was also present on the occasion.