In a major relief to the residents of the border areas of the state, the Union government today gave its nod to extend the existing project of four laning of road between Ludhiana and Talwandi Bai upto the border district of Ferozepur.This decision was taken by the Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who called on the former at his office here today at Transport Bhawan.During the meeting the Chief Minister apprised Mr. Gadkari that the ongoing project of four laning between Ludhiana and Talwandi Bhai could be more useful if it was extended upto the border town of Ferozepur. He said that otherwise the purpose of conceiving this project to provide better connectivity tp the border areas to the other parts of the state would remain unfulfilled.Raising some other issues the Chief Minister also asked the Union Minister to ensure the early completion of the project to widen the National Highway from Jalandhar to Panipat to facilitate the commuters. Likewise, he also demanded that the projects to widen Amritsar-Bathinda and Zirakpur-Patiala-Bathinda highway should also be initiated at the earliest. Acceding to the demands raised by the Chief Minister, Mr. Gadkari announced that the existing project of four laning of road between Ludhiana and Talwandi Bai would be extended upto the border district of Ferozepur. Likewise, he also assured Mr. Badal that the work on Jalandhar- Panipat national highway would also be completed at the earliest and directed the National Highway Authority to resolve all the bottlenecks and contentious issues for the resumption of country’s prestigious road project without any further delay adding that the civil work on Amritsar-Bathinda and Zirakpur-Patiala-Bathinda highway would also be commissioned soon.
Raising the issues of Rural Development, the Chief Minister urged the Minister to initiate an Integrated Rural Renewal Mission on the lines of the Urban Renewable Mission for ensuring balanced and planned growth and development of villages and reducing pressure on urbanization. Mr. Badal also sought a Special Category Economic Status for Punjab in view of its peculiar geographical location and socio-economic conditions. He said that Punjab deserved this status far more than many others because of the state being a border state, the presence of large dark areas in the form of Kandi and Waterlogged regions and the presence of the highest per capita density of Scheduled Caste/ Dalit population in the state, with nearly 30 % itspopulation falling in that category, the highest in the country. He said that it was shocking that Punjab got a meager 16 crore as Backward Region Fund whereas several other states got thousands of crore each for the same reasons even while Punjab was far more qualified to receive that funding than most other states.
The Chief Minister said that the criteria for deciding index of backwardness was loaded against Punjab and needed to be changed and made more realistic and in tune with ground realities. He said that Punjab deserved to be treated as a special category on the basis of the unique problems like depleted ground waterresources, severe water logging, difficult areas of Border and Kandi and the presence of the SC population.Calling for the launch of an Integrated Rural Renewal Mission, Mr. Badal said that focus in this should be on providing modern city like facilities of sewerage, drinking water, pucca streets, street lights etc to our villages. He said that as nearly 70% of India still lived in villages, no plan for national development could succeed if these vast areas did not receive special focus of the policy makers in New Delhi. “This is already overdue by several decades,” he said. Mr. Badal said that such a proposal was implicit also in the RURBANconcept unfolded in the election of the BJP during the last Lok Sabha elections.The Chief Minister also sought a major recast of planning process and dispensation of allocation in the MGNREGA outlay. He said that the formula for allocation of funds should be reversed from the present60:40 ratio to 40:60 ratio and District should be made a unit instead of Block. He said that skilled and semi skilled labour should be included in the labour component.
The Chief Minister submitted a proposal seeking review of norms and conditions for central grants for Housing for Rural poor. He said that Punjab was unable to access adequate funds for the purpose because of unrealistic and unreasonable conditions imposed under Indira Awaas Scheme as BPL list exhausted. He said that the upper limit of Rs 70,000/- for the construction of a house was obviously unrealistic and unreasonable as no house can be constructed with that amount. Norms on costs should be revised every year because of the fluctuating prices of material. Similarly, he said that the condition of BPL should be removed and replaced with the provision that requires certification by on the basis of Gram Sabha resolution according to survey conducted once in ten years.Flagging up the issue of Water Supply and Sanitation, the Chief Minister sought additional allocation under National Rural Drinking Water programme for the difficult areas of Border, Kandi and Waterlogged areas in the state. He also sought clearance of a project for cleaning of village ponds
in 12282 villages worth Rs.762 Cr submitted to Government of India (GoI). Mr. Badal also sought special allocation for providing water treatment/ purification system in quality affected habitations costing Rs.101.33 Cr for installation of 689 ROs.The Chief Minister also said that the Union government must restore the Original Formula for Central Road Fund. He said that the original formula was 60% fuel consumption and 40% area but unfortunately the formula changed to 30% fuel consumption and 70% area in 2009-10.The Chief Minister also said norms for inpidual household latrines under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan should be revised from the present Rs 5500 per unit to at least Rs.15000 as this was the actual cost incurred by the poor people.Responding to the issues raised by the Chief Minister, Mr. Gadkari assured him that he would get all these matters resolved in the coming days. He also announced to allocate a project of Rs 671 crore to the state under which RO plants would be installed in 1700 villages of the state in three years to ensure supply of potable drinking water to the people. Mr. Gadkari said that out of these Rs 671 crore, Rs 300 crore would be given to the state this year.The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Advisor on National Affairs and Media Mr. Harcharan Bains, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Financial Commissioner Development Mr. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary Rural Development Mr. Mandeep Singh Sandhu and Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar.