Those at helm decorated their palaces at cost of a dilapidated Patiala: Punjab CM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jan, 2023 11:19 AM
Patiala, Jan 20 (IANS) Despite being a power centre, Patiala lagged behind in process of development due to "vested interests" and "greed" of the successive rulers, who "decorated their own palaces at the cost of dilapidation of the city", Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said.
The Chief Minister, while interacting with the media after reviewing the progress of development projects worth Rs 167 crore in the city, said it is ironic that the Maharajas in power were more concerned about their own development rather than that of the city.
He said though Patiala was known as 'City of Gardens' but due to apathy of those in power, the city lost its shine in the last few years.
Mann bemoaned that the rulers of Punjab, who hailed from Patiala, remained callous about the development of the city.
He said the work on the majority of these projects, including construction of new bus stand, roads, drain channelisation and beautification project, construction of digital library at Musafir Memorial Central state library and others, have been hanging in fire since long.
However, he said that his government, which is committed to the development and progress of Patiala, has put these projects on a fast-track mode.
The work on the state-of-the-art bus stand, which is being constructed to cope up with the futuristic needs, will be completed by April 1, he said.
The Chief Minister said 93 per cent work of the bus stand has already been completed. Once operational, 1,500 buses will ply from this bus stand and will facilitate the residents a lot.
He said the existing bus stand will be used as a city bus stand, adding a shuttle bus service will be introduced.
The Chief Minister said Rs 20 crore is being spent for extending round-the-clock canal water supply to the city, adding the work for channelising and beautification of model town drain will be completed by March 31.
He said the Rajindra Tank would be developed into a tourism spot for attracting the people from across the globe. Likewise, Mann said Rs 8.26 crore is being spent on digitalisation of the Musafir Memorial Central State Library.
Farmers under the aegis of Kisan Mazdur Sangarash Committee (KMSC) held protest and rail roko prorgramme at 17 different places in Punjab on Monday to mark the anniversary of Lakhimpur Kheri incident. It may be noted that 8 persons including four farmers had died during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021.
Announcing this on the floor of Assembly, he said the farmers will get the additional amount under State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane as compared to the last year. With this decision, the state government will spend additional Rs 200 crore annually to benefit the farmers.
Accordingly, the police registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 307 (atttempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) at the Adarsh Nagar police station and during investigation, it was revealed that deceased had a quarrel with the five accused classmates in their school, due to which they murdered him to take revenge, while they were going home.
Moving a resolution to this regard, Mann said that the main function of the Punjab State Vigilance Commission is to enquire or cause enquires into complaints alleging commission of offences by a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
In spite of the pressure and demand to step down, the accused seer has categorically refused to quit, according to sources. The meeting was held in the leadership of former minister H Ekantaiah in this regard and discussed future course of action.
According to information, the deceased used to beat the juveniles and would often snatch their money to buy alcohol and drugs. The juveniles had been planning to take revenge for this. A senior police official said that the deceased was identified as Ajay, a resident of Labor Colony in Outer Delhi. The official said that the juveniles stabbed him repeatedly and fled from the crime scene.
