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Ludhiana, Aug 15 : Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday demanded the entire Punjab be treated as a ‘Special Economic Zone (SEZ)’ for agriculture and asked the Centre to bear the cost of free electricity to farmers and canal rejuvenation in Punjab as the country is meeting almost 70% of its food requirements from the food grains produced by the farmers of Punjab. He was presiding over the Independence Day function here.
On the implementation of the fifth Punjab Pay Commission Report in the wake of the acceptation of 6th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations by the GoI, Badal said whenever our commission’s report was ready, we would also implement the same with in no time. He reiterated that safeguarding of interests of the employees would be the top priority, as they all were loved ones to us. He pointed out it was always during the tenure of SAD-BJP government as for as the implementation of the new scales to its employees was concerned. He also mentioned if the need be, the state government could ask the commission to submit its report earlier.
Referring to the unprecedented rains in the state over past few days, Badal said all the commissioners and deputy commissioners besides the drainage wing of the irrigation department had been directed to make all out efforts to effectively fight out the situation like floods.
He ridiculed the Centre for its policy on the compensation for natural calamities as its stringent norms did not encompass the beneficiaries who had suffered substantial damage to their shops in the Hoshiarpur city where furniture and grocery items had been vanished but they were eligible merely for Rs.2000 as relief according to the GoI’s norms.
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