Bajwa urges PM Modi to announce special package for Punjab

Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce special package for the state on the pattern of Bihar.
He also wanted the Prime Minister to clarify the status of the Punjabi farmers settled in Gujarat who continue to face eviction.
"Financial assistance to any state should not be dictated by political considerations and rather the centre should come out with some broad formula. The package for Bihar has been announced before the upcoming Assembly elections which, in a way, amounts to collectively bribing the people.
Punjab is under a staggering debt of more than Rs 1 lakh crore and farmers in the state are committing suicides. The Prime Minister should come out with a special package at least for the farmers in this food basket of the country to wipe out their debt," he said.

Modi government has failed to come out for rescue of the state and whatever had been announced so far were nothing more than routine projects for which the ball was set rolling by the UPA government, he said.
He also wanted Modi to tell people as to what was he now doing to implement his promise made before the Lok Sabha election through a full page ad to rid Punjab of the drug menace.

Bajwa alleged that involvement of some BJP leaders in drug smuggling has now surfaced.
He alleged that Punjab was being ruined by the Akali Dal-BJP government who patronised drug mafia and the Prime Minister had failed to act.

He said that even BJP President Amit Shah who at one stage vociferously talked of taking up this issue suddenly backtracked.
He reiterated the demand for a Supreme Court monitored CBI probe into the drug racket in view of the "involvement of ruling alliance biggies."
The PPCC chief said that Punjabi farmers in Gujarat settled there since 1965 who turned the barren lands into green lands were facing the threat of eviction in view of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Gujarat government when Modi was the chief minister against the decision of the Gujarat High Court that had provided relief to these farmers.

He said it was strange that the Gujarat government had refused to withdraw this SLP.
He also demanded that the "injustice" done to Punjab by the earlier Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that granted industrial concessions to the neighbouring states should be undone.