Don’t make removal of beacons a ‘prestige’ issue: Amarinder

Wednesday, 22/03/2017

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Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday asked his ministers and MLAs to not make the removal of beacons ‘an issue of prestige’ saying that it should be considered as a gesture of gratitude towards the people.

In the backdrop of reports that some quarters including a state minister had expressed reservations over the move, the chief minister through his office issued a statement saying that his government was committed to demolish the VIP culture, as promised by the Congress in its manifesto.

In the statement, Amarinder urged all political leaders and others to support the initiative to purge the debt-ridden state of ‘irrelevant power symbols.’

Referring to the ‘humungous debt’ inherited by his government, he said every small step would count in boosting the state’s fiscal health.

“Such VIP frills were a legacy of the pre-independence era and had no place in a democratic and progressive society like ours,” the chief minister said.

He urged all colleagues in government and party and other elected representatives ‘not to make it (removal of beacons) an issue of prestige but to look at it as a small gesture of gratitude to the people for electing them to power.’

The decision to not use red beacons was taken after the first meeting of the Punjab Cabinet.

The VIP culture, said Amarinder in his statement on Tuesday, had eroded the country’s democratic systems and alienated the common people.

He urged the public figures to respect people’s sentiment and said it was not things like red beacons but hard work, commitment and sincerity that were the harbingers of popularity and respect.

Punjabis had always been at the forefront of positive change and revolution, the chief minister said exhorting all MLAs, ex-MLAs and other elected leaders to set an example for the rest of the country.

Besides removal of red beacons from VIP vehicles, the government has initiated other measures to rid the state of such symbolism, which Amarinder said would be implemented in toto.

Committees formed to prevent adhocism, corruption: Govt

Chandigarh : Punjab government has rejected Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s charge of using committees as a smokescreen to hide inaction, saying it was essential to evolve a proper framework for implementation of its decisions to avoid the kind of adhocism that had been the byword of the previous government’s functional style.

The adhoc functioning of the Badal government had, over the past 10 years, led to a total collapse of the government systems, which officials across the state had been misusing for their personal gains, a spokesperson of the Captain Amarinder Singh government said.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder had already made it clear that his government would follow a zero tolerance policy towards corruption by making governance accountable to the people, said the spokesperson. He added that a duly constituted committee, comprising several members, was the best way to ensure that due process of law and governance is followed in the execution of any decision, especially in view of the poor fiscal health of the state, whose coffers had been completely drained by the Badal regime.

The Badal government had, in 10 years of its rule, failed to implement even 30 per cent of their poll promises while the Congress government had initiated the process of executing more than 33 per cent of their electoral promises within two days of taking charge, the spokesperson observed.

Reacting to Sukhbir’s reported statement that the new government should first announce farm loan waiver, the spokesperson pointed out that the cabinet had already taken a formal decision to this effect. The committee had been appointed simply to work out the modalities of the process to ensure just and fair implementation of the decision, he

added.

The spokesperson further pointed out that all decisions taken by the Cabinet in its maiden meeting provided for time-bound implementation and hence there was no question of dilly-dallying or looking for a smokescreen, as alleged by the SAD leader.