Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday reiterated his commitment to the waiver of farm debts, saying his government would soon find ways and means to bail out the debt-ridden farmers, with or without the help of the Centre.
The Chief Minister was interacting with the media after inaugurating D-Mart’s first post-IPO store in Punjab here.
Assuring that his government was duty-bound to keep every promise made to the people in its election manifesto, Amarinder said the state government had approached the Union Government for waiver of farmers’ loans; but even if it failed to get any support from the Centre, it would ensure that the farmers were freed of their mounting debts, for which the state machinery had already been set in motion.
Referring to the Congress poll promise of eliminating the drug menace from the state, the Chief Minister said the Special Task Force (STF) was firmly dealing with the scourge and would ensure that drugs were wiped out from Punjab.
Amarinder said the STF headed by senior IPS officer Harpreet Singh Sidhu was working diligently and the day was not far when this problem would be wiped out from the state.
On the issue of eradication of corruption, the Chief Minister said necessary steps were being taken, with his government working hard to put things in order in the state, which had been “pushed backward by the misdeeds of the Akalis and the BJP”.
He said the state government would soon bring out a White Paper on the state’s economy, to expose the “financial havoc wreaked by the Akalis on Punjab”.
He said his government had also initiated the process of curbing illegal mining, which had become rampant during the SAD-BJP rule. He said a number of mines would be auctioned in the coming days, after which the price of sand and gravel in Punjab would become normal.
He said welfare of the public and development of the state was the top priority of his government, which had taken a number of path-breaking initiatives.
Earlier, inaugurating the sprawling D-Mart store, set up at Dhillon Silicon Square, Zirakpur, the Chief Minister welcomed the company’s plans to set up 10 stores initially in the state with an investment of Rs 500 crore, providing direct employment to about 1,000 youth.
The key focus of his government, he said, would be on getting Punjab back on track with a highly investor-friendly climate, generating employment for the youth and restoring investor confidence in the state. Amarinder said a new industrial policy, aimed at wooing investors and concurrently generating employment for the local youth, would soon be unveiled by his government.
