Make villages drug-free, CM tells sarpanches

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 11

In election mode ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday asked MLAs to speed up development works in their constituencies. Earlier in the day, he administered the oath of office to Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPOs) and newly elected panches, sarpanches, zila parishad and block samiti members of Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.

He held a meeting with MLAs and officers of the two districts at his New Moti Bagh residence.

Assuring them all possible help for all-round development of their areas, the CMsaid the elected panchayat members had a very important role to play in ending drug abuse and safeguarding the future of the youth. “This is the first responsibility I am entrusting to you,” he said. Capt Amarinder told people’s representatives before administering them the oath at the function held on the outskirts of Patiala. “Despite some political parties using unfair means in the panchayat elections, the recently concluded polls had been totally peaceful in sharp contrast to what the state had been witnessing under the SAD-BJP rule for 10 years,” he alleged.

Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa announced that villages associated with Guru Nanak would be given special attention in view of his 550th birth anniversary. “The CM will soon release funds to the tune of Rs 700 crore to intensify the pace of development in villages, he added.”

Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot said the SAD had “failed” to protect the interests of the state and the BJP government at the Centre had failed to give the state any money for Guru’s anniversary celebrations. He said while Modi had given Rs 10,000 crore to UP for celebrations of a religious event, he did not sanction a penny for Punjab for this historic event.

Former Union External Affairs Minister Preneet Kaur urged the newly elected panches and sarpanches to involve candidates who had lost the elections in the process of planning constructive development programmes for their respective villages.