Conceding the long pending legitimate demand of the state to benefit the millions of Schedule Castes (SC) brethren, the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot today gave his nod to include Punjab under the “Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojna” scheme.This significant decision aimed at transforming the fortunes of SC population in the state, was taken by Mr. Gehlot in meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal who called on the former at his office in Shastri Bhawan this evening.
Expressing gratitude to the Union Minister, Mr. Badal said that he had been pleading to get this demand implemented since long as Punjab was the most deserving state with highest SC population (32%) in the country as per census 2011 and out of the total number of 12168 inhabited villages, 2800 villages (23.01%) have 50% or more SC population.
The Chief Minister said that this scheme would go a long way in providing the basic infra structural facilities like pavement of streets and phirnis, solar street lights, hand pumps, toilets, water supply and sewerage. It may be recalled that till now five states with far less SC population than Punjab were reaping the benefits of this scheme. These states included Tamil Nadu with 14.4% SC population, Uttar Pradesh (10.07%), Bihar (6.4%), Rajasthan (6.1%) and Assam (4%).The Union Minister also agreed to the proposal mooted by the state government to establish Sports Institute for Disabled in Zirakpur nearly at the cost of Rs 150 crore, for which the 10 acre land would be provided free of cost by the state government to the Government of India (GoI).
In another significant decision, the Union Minister assured Mr. Badal to get the funding of the state government’s scheme of Rs 200 crore for setting up of 22 Rehabilitation Centers in all the districts, thoroughly examined in his Ministry within the ambit of stipulated guidelines of Central Sector scheme of Assistance for prevention of alcoholism and drugs. These Centers were aimed at checking the drug abuse, which was posing a major threat to our youth besides offering them an opportunity to lead a normal life after detoxification as part of their treatment with dignity.
The Chief Minister also urged Mr. Gehlot for seeking his personal intervention to get pending amount of Rs 10 crore released under the pre-matric scholarship scheme of SC students of class 9th and 10th. Likewise, he also sought a sum of Rs 14.61 crore as balance against the pre-matric scholarship to OBC students. Similarly Mr. Badal also impressed upon the Union Minister to immediately get released the backlog grant worth Rs 543. 19 crore for 2013-14 and 2014-15 under the Post Matric Scholarship scheme to the SC students so as to comply with the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The Union Minister assured Mr. Badal that he would soon hold a meeting of senior officers of the Ministry to get all the issues raised in today’s meeting settled once for all. He also asked the Joint Secretaries Ms. Ghazala Meenai, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar and Mr. Awanish K Awasthi to visit the state next week to take stock of the various proposals put forth by the state government and initiate concrete steps for their timely implementation. The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Special Principal Secretaries Mr. KJS Cheema and Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh besides Director Social Welfare Mr. Paramjeet Singh.