DEPUTY
CHIEF MINISTER UNFURLS THE NATIONAL FLAG AT PATIALA
Three more Lok Adalats
and 16 Court Rooms to be set-up - Chief Justice
Chandigarh 26 January, 2009
Hon'ble Mr. Justice, T.S. Thakur, Chief Justice of Punjab
& Haryana High Court, today on the occasion of 60th Republic
Day, unfurled the National Flag in the premises of High Court.
Mr. Justice, Thakur in his Republic Day address said that on
this day every face glows with spirit of patriotism, when the
pride of being an Indian reverberates in every voice, when all
Indians cones together to celebrate this big day. He said in
order to provide speedy justice three more Lok Adalats and 16
new Court Rooms would be set up. Hon'ble Chief Justice of India
would inaugurate three new Lok Adalats and also lay foundation
stone of 16 new Court Rooms on 14th February, 2009. He said
that earlier set up three daily Lok Adalats disposed off 1100
cases in three months. He said at present three crore cases
in India, 12 lakh cases in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh and
2.5 lakh cases were pending in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Thakur further disclosed that Mega Lok
Adalats was held in which 2.92 lakh pending cases were disposed
off.
He said that let us rededicate ourselves to the ideals of
our constitution to assure the dignity of the individual and
the unity and integrity of the Nation.
National Anthem and Patriotic Songs were sung by the students
of Shivalik Public School Mohali and folk dance Bhangra was
also performed by them.
BADAL’S RARE GESTURE FOR PM’S
SPEEDY RECOVERY
Akhand Path at Golden Temple begins
AMRITSAR JANUARY 26, 2009
In a gesture unprecedented in the Indian Political
stream, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today
got the continuous recitation (Akhand Path) of Sri Guru Granth
Sahib started at Sri Harimandir Sahib ( Golden Temple ) to pray
for speedy recovery, sound health and long life of Dr. Manmohan
Singh.
The continuing recitation of Akhand Path was
started this morning at the Golden Temple .
Chief Minister’s Media Advisor Mr. Harcharan Bains said
that Mr. Badal “is deeply concerned about the health of
the Prime Minister and has been praying for his good health
during his Gurbani recitation every morning”. Mr. Bains
said that the decision to organize an Akhand Path of Sri Guru
Granth Sahib was taken by the Chief Minister on the day of the
Prime Minister’s operation. The starting of Akhand Path
coincide with the 60th Republic Day of the country.
Later, Mr. Badal touched an emotional chord during the course
of his Republic Day speech when he said “Dr. Manmohan
Singh was born and lived up in the holy city of Sri Amritsar
Sahib. Therefore, from the soil of this holy place, I pray to
the Almighty on behalf of all Punjabis that Dr. Singh may recover
quickly to resume charge of leadership of the nation. All Punjabis
join me in this Ardas”, he said.
BADAL CALLS FOR “GENUINE FEDERALISM”
Unfurls Tri-Color on 60th Republic Day
AMRITSAR JANUARY 26:
The Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today called
for the setting of a “genuinely federal system”
of governance, describing it as the only guarantee to ensure
unity, integrity, development and prosperity of the country.
Mr. Badal also decried the tendency towards “remote
control approach to governance” and said that the top-down
approach to issues of development and governance had already
come a cropper. “Decentralization of the decision making
process in the only answer to the problems being faced by the
people”, said Mr. Badal.
Addressing a mammoth gathering after unfurling the national
flag on the historic occasion of India's 60th Republic Day function
here at Guru Nanak Stadium, Mr. Badal felicitated the people
of the state and said: “The true intent of spirit of the
long and profound deliberations in the Constituent Assembly
was focused on the need for federal form of government. Unfortunately,
successive governments at the Centre have systematically eroded
that spirit and turned the system into a unitary form of government”.
Quoting liberally from the speeches of an Architect of the Indian
Constitution Dr.BR Ambedkar, Mr. Badal warned that this trend
can have dangerous implications for peace and stability of the
country. Describing Dr.Ambedkar as “the greatest Constitutional
genius of the country”, Mr. Badal regretted that the dream
of this great visionary have been shattered by a temptation
on the part of the Centre to arrogate all powers to itself.
He said: “The States governments are in the best position
to understand and redress the grievances and the problems of
the people as these are directly responsible for the delivery
of services to the people as per their felt needs and are alive
to the ground realities”.
The Chief Minister said that stronger states meant stronger
India. Federalism was another way towards strengthening the
bonds between our people with diverse linguistic, cultural,
religious and regional backgrounds. Therefore, the states need
to be strengthened and given more financial and political autonomy,
especially with regard to decision-making process on issues
of local and regional development and the promotion of their
cultural and linguistic identities.
Blaming the Centre for its apathetic and discriminating attitude
towards Punjab, the Chief Minister said that it had always betrayed
Punjab on every front, be it agriculture, industry and other
sectors. He said that Central policies were inimical to the
interests of the Punjab. He cited an example that agriculture
was a state subject but the Centre was fixing the MSP, finalizing
the prices of diesel and fertilizers contrary to the interests
of the farming community. The Chief Minister further lamented
the callous attitude of Centre for not even acknowledging Punjab's
immense contribution in the National Freedom struggle and making
our country self reliant in food production. He said Punjab
was contributing nearly 70% of its share in the national food
basket but what we had gained in return, asked Mr. Badal. He
pointed out that Centre had always turned down our repeated
requests to link the MSP with price index thereby leaving the
entire farming community at the cross roads.
The Chief Minister called upon the people to take a firm resolve
on this solemn day to strengthen democratic values of our country
which had acquired an enviable position as the world’s
largest democracy. He also called for to start a second war
of Independence to free our nation from poverty, unemployment,
illiteracy and social evils such as drug addiction, female foeticide,
dowry, caste discrimination etc. He underscored the need for
a people's movement against these menaces. “Only the people
will can bring about a revolution in our ways of thinking, asserted
Mr. Badal.
Reminiscing the unparalleled contributions of Punjab in bringing
about the historic moment of Independence of this great nation,
Mr. Badal said that 80% of the great freedom fighters and patriots,
who made supreme sacrifices for attaining freedom, belonged
to Punjab besides several martyrs and warriors who attained
martyrdom were also Punjabis which indeed was a matter of great
honour and pride for all of us and even lakhs of Punjabis had
to face the brunt of partition in 1947 and were displaced.
The Chief Minister bemoaned that our freedom fighters and
patriots laid down their lives for the betterment of our countrymen
but it was a sad plight that the aspirations of our freedom
fighters had not yet been cherished because they dreamt of an
Independent India free from the maladies of illiteracy, unemployment
and starvation. Mr. Badal said: “I especially salute the
long line of heroes and martyrs from Punjab because of whose
selfless devotion to the cause of the nation, we are a free
nation today”.
Outlining the various initiatives taken by the SAD-BJP alliance
government for the development of the state and welfare of the
all sections of the society, Mr. Badal said that one of the
key areas was power. We were in the process of setting four
major thermal plants to more than double the generation of power
in the state from the present 6200 MWs to nearly 12000 MWs.
He also said that the government had already started a scheme
to provide subsidized ration i.e. Atta-Dal to 13.5 lac families
at a cost of Rs.700 crore annually. Likewise the government
was already in process to set up Adarsh Schools to impart quality
education to the intelligent and poor students at a cost of
Rs.400 crore.
On the development of the holy city of the Amritsar, Mr. Badal
said that a special project with the assistance from a reputed
Japanese firm to provide facilities of sewerage and drinking
water in the city at a cost of Rs.360 crore had already been
launched besides the prestigious elevated road project to directly
connect Sri Harimandir Sahib and Sri Durgiana Mandir free from
congestion due to heavy vehicular traffic. A special development
grant of Rs.165 crore for the Amritsar city had already been
given by the state government. He said a World Class University
would be soon set up at Amritsar and a Central team was expected
to visit the city for the selection of site within week. Attari-Wagha
Check post had been revamped to facilitate the Indo-Pak trade
at a massive investment of Rs.130 crore besides a detailed project
had been worked out for revamping the prestigious Government
Medical College and Guru Nanak Dev Hospital at a cost of Rs.144
crore.
Earlier, Mr.Badal inspected the parade led by Mr. Pardeep
Kumar Yadav, IPS and took a salute during an impressive march
past by the contingents of Punjab Police, Punjab Home Guards,
NCC Cadets, Bharat Scouts and Girls guides besides the Punjab
police band and 8 other school bands. A colorful variety programme
including Bhangra, Gidha, Group Dance, PT show presented by
the students of various local schools and colleges regaled the
audience and martial arts performed by ‘Akal Purkh ki
Fauj’ made the audience spell bound. As many as 14 tableaux
from various departments depicted the on going developmental
activities of the State Government. Mr. Badal honoured 12 freedom
fighters on this occasion. Besides the Chief Minister also gave
tri-cycles to the physical challenged persons and honoured the
eminent personalities from different walks of life for their
outstanding services towards the society with a momento and
a commendation certificate. As many as 437 beneficiaries belonging
to Vimukt communities were bestowed with ownership rights of
5 marla plots on the panchayati land in Amritsar district.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion
included Member Parliament Raj Mohinder Singh Majitha, former
Information & Public Relations Minister Mr. Bikram Singh
Majithia, Media Advisor to Chief Minister Mr. Harcharan Bains,
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. DS Guru, Additional
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gaggandeep Singh Brar,
besides the local civil and police administration, senior party
leaders and workers of SAD-BJP and members of the SGPC.
