Chandigarh, March 16: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday announced that the state was drafting drug legislation and that a police officer had been deputed in every village to keep a check on the menace.
Singh also said the Kartarpur Corridor had been closed due to the coronavirus scare and that the closure was only temporary while addressing media at an event to mark the completion of three years of Congress rule in the state.
He said the government was soon going to act in the sacrilege and subsequent police firing cases. He said he would be “harsh”, as he was a veteran soldier, and would not allow the law and order situation in Punjab to deteriorate.
The chief minister said out of the total 424 poll promises, 225 had been implemented by his government so far. Another 96 had been partially implemented and the remaining 103 would be implemented in the coming two years, he said.
“The party high command has set up a manifesto implementation committee and we will implement all the manifestos,” Singh added.
Singh said Punjab would start a debt loan waiver scheme for landless farm labourers as soon as the precautionary measures due to coronavirus are eased.
Apart from medical colleges at Mohali, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur, two more medical colleges have been planned at Gurdaspur and Malerkotla, he announced.
Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said the state’s fiscal situation and economy had improved drastically in the last three years. Badal said “the days of state’s double draft have reduced” and announced that Punjab’s liability to the Centre was Rs 4,600 crore.
Punjab GDP’s has improved and the state has a primary surplus, he said. The state was in a position to pay Rs 4,000 crore to retiring employees as the retirement age had been cut to 58. Punjab’s revenue receipts have grown by 18 per cent and expenditure is growing at 3 per cent, he said.
