PWD Minister administers oath to sarpanches

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 11

The Minister for Public Works Department and IT, Vijay Inder Singla, administered oath to the newly elected panchayat members, sarpanches, members of the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti at a district-level function organised at Multania Road in the city on Friday.

The newly elected representatives of 16 zila parishads, 148 panchayat samiti members, 308 sarpanches and 2,419 panches were administered oath during the event.

Addressing a gathering, the minister congratulated the newly elected representatives of the panchayati raj institutions and urged them to work for the betterment of labourers, farmers and other weaker sections of society.

Singla said, “It’s all because of the hard work and dedication that you have been able to register win, but now it is time to work harder so that development works could be carried out for the people who have shown faith in you.”

He added that the newly elected representatives should work for the larger public interest without any bias.

Singla said the state government had not only given more powers to the panchayati raj institutions but it had also given 50 per cent reservation to the women contesting these elections.

He said, “For the Rs 2 lakh per farmer loan waiver for 10.25 lakh farmers, so far loan amount of Rs 4,000 crore for 4.1 lakh farmers has already been waived off by the state government. The government has replaced the blue cards with smart cards for the Atta-Dal Scheme so that the actual and needy families could avail of the benefit of this scheme without any delay.”

He urged the newly elected representatives to get encroachments removed from the panchayat lands of their respective areas so that the 5 marla plots can be given to poor families.

After administering the oath to fight against drugs, Vijayinder Singla urged everyone present at the function to spread awareness against drugs in urban and rural areas of the state.

Later, replying to mediapersons’ queries, the PWD and IT Minister said people had given clear indication in the panchayat elections about their support for the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Praneet, IG MS Farooqui, SSP Nanak Singh, ADC (G) Sukhpreet Singh Sidhu and ADC (D) Sakshi Sawhney were also present at the event.