Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday asked the Centre to beef up security along the Indo-Pak frontier in the State to check infiltration from across the border.
“The Union government must beef up security along the Indo-Pak border in the state. Effective steps must be taken by the government of India to check infiltration from across the border,” Mr Badal said here.
He expressed happiness over the decision of Union Home Ministry to revoke the orders regarding evacuation of villages with in 10 km radius of Indo-Pak border.
Lauding the Centre for allotting express highways projects, Mr Badal envisioned it would act as catalyst of development and prosperity of the state, besides facilitating travel in hassle free manner.
The State government had on Friday said the Centre had given its in-principle approval to the proposed alignment of Katra-Amritsar-Delhi national highway via Jind-Barnala-Moga and Amritsar. Centre also gave in-principle go ahead to Jalandhar-Ajmer expressway and its proposed alignment via Jalandhar-Moga-Bathinda and Ajmer.
Replying to another query on the sidelines of Sangat Darshan program in Lambi Assembly segment here on Saturday, the Chief Minister reiterated the firm commitment of the State government to lift every single grain of paddy from the market.
He said the State government has already made elaborate arrangements for smooth and hassle free procurement of the food grains.
Mr Badal said the entire procurement operation was being monitored by the top brass of state government to avoid any sort of inconvenience to the farmers.
Refuting the charges of “misappropriation of funds” for procurement being leveled by the Congress, the Chief Minister said that all these allegations were “figment of imagination”.
He said the entire procurement operations were monitored by a premier banking institute, so there was hardly any scope of misappropriation.
Mr Badal said that the amount of around Rs 30,000 crore being questioned by Congress leaders also includes the funds used for procurement during their successive regimes adding that Congress was just “misleading” the people to score brownie points before the media.
Badal also expressed deep concern over the recent attack on Sikhs in California. He expressed hope that the Centre would take adequate measures to ensure the security of Sikhs across the globe. - PTI
