Hailing the NDA government, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today thanked the Centre for deciding to include Punjab under the 'Prime Minister Adarsh Gram Yojna' scheme, aimed at transforming the fortunes of SC population in the state.
Hitting out at the previous UPA government, Badal said, "The previous Congress-led government had deliberately excluded Punjab from this scheme despite of largest concentration of SC population in it.
The Chief Minister further said that he had personally raised the issue with the UPA government a number of times earlier but no heed was paid towards this genuine demand of the state government.
"States with far less SC population than Punjab were reaping the benefits of this scheme during the UPA regime but the state was deliberately denied the benefits, which was grave injustice with millions of SC brethren," he said on the sidelines of a function here in Lambi Assembly segment here.
Badal said that after the change of guard at the Centre, the NDA government has given its consent to include state under this scheme.
Expressing gratitude to the NDA government, Badal said Punjab was the most deserving state with highest SC population (32 per cent) in the country as per Census 2011 and out of the total number of 12,168 inhabited villages, 2,800 villages (23.01 per cent) have 50 per cent or more SC population.
Badal said this scheme would go a long way in providing the basic infrastructural facilities like pavement of streets, solar street lights, hand pumps, toilets, water supply and sewerage in the villages across the state.
"As Muktsar district has the largest concentration of SC populace, 50 villages from the district have been chosen under this scheme," he said.
On allegations levelled by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu regarding development of her constituency, Badal said he has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore as demanded by her for the Amritsar constituency.
"If Navjot seeks more funds for her constituency, her demand would be considered," he said.
Refuting the allegations regarding preferential treatment to any city/constituency of the state, he said the SAD-BJP alliance government was sincerely working to ensure overall development and growth in every nook and corner of the state without any prejudice or regional disparity.
