"Look into yourself before blaming centre"

Ramesh snubs Punjab govt over discrimination allegations

PTI | July 6, 2012



Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked Punjab government to "look into yourself" before blaming the centre for discrimination, and said that the state government could use only Rs 29 crore on rural sanitation against allocation of Rs 151 crore in the last ten years.

"In the last ten years, a sum of Rs 151 crore was allocated to Punjab for rural sanitation. But Punjab could take only Rs 29 crore. (Therefore) before you blame somebody else look into yourself," Ramesh said talking to reporters here today when he was asked to respond on the state government's charge of discrimination by the Centre.

Asserting there was no discrimination against Punjab, he said, the Centre always stressed upon providing funds to the states which are in need of development projects.

Ramesh said that he was asked by Prime Minister Manhohan Singh to make provision for rural road projects in the border districts of Punjab.

"I talked to the PM a few days ago and he told me to propose something for the border districts of Punjab, including Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Fazilka, Ferozepur and Pathankot, under the Prime Minister Grameen Sadak Yojna.

We will come up with a project in the next 3-4 months for these districts," he said.

He further said that on the request of Punjab government, a team of Planning Commission visited the water-logged areas of the state to find a solution to this problem as about five lakh acres of land was found to be water-logged.

"We have even asked Punjab government to come up with a proposal for a 1700 km rural road project," he said.

A sum of Rs 7.5 crore has been sanctioned for setting up a bridge in a village in Fazilka under PM Grameen Sadak Yojna.

"Punjab government has no reason to complain about discrimination by the Centre," he asserted.

SAD-BJP led Punjab Government on many occasions had accused the Centre of meeting out "step-motherly" treatment to the state on the issue of creation of storage space, funds allocation, etc.

Comments

 

Other News

Testing the teachers, moving the goalposts

A teacher was appointed in 1999, before the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into force, and appointed under the rules that existed at that time. She gave the necessary test, passed it, passed the interview, and was appointed. Over the next 26 years, she taught thousands of children, faced transfer orde

`Focus on infra, reforms, digital connectivity has created strong foundation for growth`

In a step towards the operationalisation of the Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana (BHAVYA), union minister of commerce & industry Piyush Goyal launched the BHAVYA Portal on Monday in New Delhi.   Addressing the gathering, Goyal said that the BHAVYA scheme will adopt a competit

Govt, RBI announce major reforms to attract FPI

The finance ministry on Friday announced a series of measures aimed at enhancing the ease of investment for individual Persons Resident Outside India (PROIs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), and to attract stable long-term foreign capital flows.   Building on the recent in

Lessons in climate adaption from world’s largest inhabited river island

Majuli Island, perched between the Brahmaputra River to the south and east, the Subansiri River to the west, and a branch of the Brahmaputra to the north, has been severely affected by recurrent flooding and intense riverbank erosion. Despite its global importance in acquiring UNESCO tentative status for

Careless whispers and the impossible trinity

Time can never mend, the careless whispers of …    As the RBI marches ahead, for the upcoming monetary policy meeting this June, whispers from the corridors echo around several policy options to defend the rupee – by deploying forex reserves, raising in

Bullet Train Project: Third mountain tunnel breakthrough achieved

A major engineering milestone has been achieved in the Mumbai–Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project with the successful breakthrough of the third mountain tunnel (MT-07) at Ambesari village in Dahanu Taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra.   With this achievement, three mountain





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter