UPA Discriminating Against Opposition Ruled States-Sukhbir

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5 Dariya News

New Delhi/Chandigarh , 17 Nov 2012

The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today accused Congress led UPA Government of blatantly discriminating against opposition ruled state and favoring the states ruled by allies/supporters in disbursing grants and relief to the states.Participating in a panel discussion organized by a media group with two other young satraps, Mr. Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister, Jammu and Kashmir and Mr. Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Badal said that “numbers were the name of the game and in this game of numbers small states having single digit MPs especially being ruled by opposition parties were being blatantly ignored by Union Government. Citing the example of Drought Relief, Mr. Badal said that even after metrological department of India declared that Punjab had a 42% rain deficiency, highest in the country, the Union Government refused to give a single penny of drought relief and only favoring those states, which were helping Union Government survive numerically in the center. He said that this was a dangerous phenomenon and shows that we have not matured to run coalition providing equitable justice to every state. Intervening in the discussion, Mr. Omar Abdullah said that even numbers don’t matter, your political affiliation matter as though Gujarat may have big number of MPs but it would not get the same kind of treatment that Congress ruled states were getting. Rubbishing the charge that regional parties were responsible for political instability in the country, Mr. Badal said that days of two party rules are over and we should accept the fact that Coalition Politics was here to stay for ever. He said that people chose regional parties as National Parties failed to fulfill the aspirations of electorates and every decision making became too centralized. He said that our parties should accept coalition politics and behaved to run coalition in a mature manner sticking to mutually decided Common Minimum Program. On the issue of Corruption, Mr. Badal said that Corruption could not be eradicated by a single Lokpal as we have to make the systems transparent and online to eradicate the opportunities for the corruption. Giving the examples of Punjab, Mr. Badal said that as per Governance Reforms Commission’s report, we are all set to put 99 percent citizen services online, removing physical interaction of public with state, evolving transparent procedures and minimizing discretion of authorities that leads to corruption. He said that Punjab is the first state to eliminate affidavits and empowered citizen by introducing ‘self attestation’. He said that Punjab is the first state in the country that has computerized all land records, providing online copy of your land records across the globe. Mr. Badal said that auto dealers in Punjab are giving copies of Vehicle Registration Certificate on the spot the moment you buy the vehicle. He said that Punjab is only state that has made e-tendering compulsory for every government department and saved more then 30% money in project costs. He said that if Congress led UPA Government would have resorted to e-tendering and transparent procedure, minimizing the discretion of authorities; there would not have been any 2G, 3G, CWG Multi Lakh Crore Scams. He said that time has come that to minimize the chances of corruption rather than to keep punishing the people after they have looted the kitty. Appreciating the efforts of Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, UP Chief Minister Mr. Akhilesh Yadav said that his endeavor to check citizen-centric corruption was appreciable and this model should be also adopted to check Multi Lakh Crore Scams.On a question of probable role of Regional Parties in ensuing 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Badal said that every party in the country including so called National Parties have been reduced to regional parties with their influence reducing to two-three states, other states being ruled by Regional Parties. He said that new nomenclature should be big Regional Parties and Small Regional Parties as no party in India including Congress could claim to be a National Party.Answering another question on India Against Corruption ( IAC ) was targeting only National Parties and not exposing corruption of Regional Parties, Mr. Badal said that corruption was the omni-present phenomenon afflicting every section of the society including media also. He said that the menace of paid news in the elections has become so enormous and every candidate was being asked to take a package by the representatives of media organization to avoid negative news. He said that time has come for media also to introspect and check this malpractice as independent media was imperative for the strength of our Democratic System.On the question of political legacy to three young leaders, Mr. Badal said that there was no denying fact that people trust a brand and a political family. He said that political family can give you only first chance after that you have to make your own way and survive in the cut throat competitive political environment. He said that 92 years old Shiromani Akali Dal has unanimously elected him to lead the party after watching his performance in many electoral battles.  Mr. Badal said that Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab is and would remain my role model in my political life as I have learnt alphabets of politics just watching him in his 50 year long political career. He said that Mr. Badal was a political university himself. Answering a question regarding criminal elements in the politics, Mr. Badal said that we have to make some distinctions between criminal cases as lot of false cases were lodged, when you are in opposition giving his own example even I was charged stealing a small camera. Speaking about his visit to Pakistan, Mr. Badal said that his visit to Lahore was historic and eye-opener. He said that against popular perception he could not see any anti-India feeling in the people of Pakistan and got an impression that they were more eager than us to strengthen Indo-Pak trade ties. He said that he got a feeling that, “if we move one step, they were willing to take ten steps forward” to strengthen economic ties. He said that he had sought appointment with Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Commerce Minister to brief them about his visit to Pakistan and hope that Union Government would take forward the economic agenda with Pakistan with equal zeal that we have initiated. Mr. Badal said that economics was the name of the game and increasing Indo-Pak economic dependence would end wars and hostilities between two neighbouring countries. In the 45 minutes long panel discussion, the young visionary face of new India, Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal got a thunderous applause as he explained the blueprint to check corruption from public life. Mr. Omar Abdullah and Mr. Akhilesh Yadav also participated in the discussion.