Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called upon the eminent scholars, educationists, academicians attached with the non-political Social organizations to further intensify their efforts to inculcate the spirit of nationalism and communal harmony amongst our young. While addressing a mammoth gathering during the inaugural function on 39th All India National Group Song Competition-2013 organized by Bharat Vikas Parishad (BVP) here today, Mr. Badal Impressed upon the need to establish a value based society, adding he called upon the youth to strive hard for preserving our rich cultural heritage. Mr. Badal lauded the enamors role of Punjabis for making more than 80% sacrifices in the national freedom struggle despite being merely two-and-a-half percent of country’s total population. He said that Punjabis had played a vanguard role in freedom struggle and proved themselves the true sons of the soil. He said, “Everyone must feel proud of this unique and brave contribution of Punjabis. The rich legacy of unprecedented sacrifices of our martyrs would ever act as a source of patriotic inspiration for our future generations.
Appreciating the efforts of Bharat Vikas Parishad a non-political, socio-cultural voluntary organization that was established in 1963, dedicated to the teachings of Swami Vivekanand Ji to ensure country's overall development through imbibing a sense of patriotism, national unity and integrity amongst the country men. Mr. Badal asked the organization to work in sync with the state government for establishing a State-of-the-art Skill development centre to train unemployed youth to enable them to be gainfully employed. Reiterating the firm commitment of SAD-BJP government for the welfare of its youth especially the downtrodden and oppressed section of the society, besides playing pro-active role in establishing a value based society, Mr. Badal offered of Rs. One crore as financial assistance to BVP for establishing the a new Skill development tanning centre. Later, addressing the media persons the Chief Minister said that social maladies like drug addiction had crippled our society and keeping in view the growing tendency of drug addiction especially amongst the youth, the state government had already launched a crusade to stamp out this menace. Mr. Badal said that time and again he kept on urging the Government of India (GoI) to take effective measures to check the smuggling of drug from across the Pakistan border as it was the sole responsibility of GoI to safeguard the International borders through BSF and other Central Para-military forces, which were directly under its control. He said that a joint operation must be launched by the Centre and States to redress this issue completely.
Expressing concern over ever increasing cross border smuggling of drugs and narcotics, Mr. Badal said that SAD-BJP government had already taken strict action to control drug menace with in the state and seized huge consignments of drugs and caught the drug peddlers. Blaming GoI for not taking issue seriously, Mr. Badal said that the real problem was still persisting across the border. He further mentioned added that even the open sale of poppy husk like any other commodity in the neighboring state of Rajasthan was posing a major threat to Punjab but agony was despite his repeated requests GoI had not even asked the Rajasthan government on this count.
On the occasion, Mr. Badal also announced a grant of Rs. 10 lac for BVP.Prominent amongst those were present on the occasion included BVP's National President Justice (Retd.) VS Kokje, National Vice-president Mr. Lalit Mahajan, National General secretary Mr. Surinder Kumar, prominent Industrialists Mr. Rajiv Nanachal and Advisor to the Chief minister Mr. Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, besides other office bearers of BVP and hundreds of young participants across the Country.