Atta-dal scheme a poor clone of UPA’s food security plan: Bajwa
Sunday, 01/12/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131201/punjab.htm#3
Jalandhar : Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa today said the new Atta-Dal scheme of the SAD-BJP government was nothing but a poor clone of the UPA’s Food Security Programme.
He said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would not be allowed to “play with the Central-sponsored schemes” anymore and that the Congress would scuttle all such attempts in future.
He said the credit for providing subsidised food to poor people went to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting at Tanda in Hoshiarpur under the PPCC mass contact programme, Bajwa said the SAD-BJP government was misleading the people by making false claims on the Atta-Dal scheme. “The fact is that the Centre supplies wheat to the Punjab government at Rs 2 per kg offering subsidy of Rs 18. The state government was so far supplying foodgrains at Rs 4 per kg and the scheme reached a dead end due to severe fund crunch.
He said that after getting Central-sponsored wheat at Rs 2 per kg, the Punjab government gave a subsidy of Rs 1 per kg only. The Centre, Bajwa claimed, was going to provide about nine lakh tonnes of wheat costing Rs 1,800 crore every year for which the state would bear only 10 per cent cost.
Referring to the Kabaddi World Cup, the PPCC chief said it was a ploy to hush up the issue of drug trade and human trafficking being run by SAD leaders. Santosh Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, said the SAD-BJP government had failed in addressing the problems of SCs, backward classes etc.
She said that welfare schemes such as MANREGA could not deliver in Punjab due to administrative failure and lack of political will.
She said that center was giving about Rs. 475 crores every year to Punjab under National Rural Health Mission but, primary health services in the rural areas are in bad shape.
Among those who addressed the meeting were former minister Lal Singh, Tarlochan Singh Soond and Sunder Sham Arora.
Need to regulate pvt school fee: Cong
Punjab Congress spokesperson Nimisha Mehta in a communication to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has urged him to ensure formation of a panel to regulate the fee structure of private schools in the state. "The money being charged by private schools under the garb of school fee, stationery and extra-curricular activities is so high that it is becoming impossible for the common man to send their children to these schools. Besides increasing the fee manifold every year, these schools are charging hefty money for textbooks, uniforms etc. The amount is almost four times the market price,” she said.
