Ashok Verma
- Central Government has not released separate funds for COVID-19
- Finance Minister pats police and medics
Bathinda, April 12, 2020 - Punjab Finance Minister Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal on Sunday gave a suggestion to the DGP of Punjab that the policemen should be called 'Jawan' or 'Sher' instead of an employee as they always ready to sacrifice their lives for the safety of people so their status is much higher than employees.The Minister visited police nakas in Bathinda to encourage the Jawans, working day and night to protect the people from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Badal said that we are proud of our brave force and unfortunate incidents like Patiala, where the police party was attacked, cannot diminish the courage of our Jawans. He also urged the people to co-operate with civil administration and police to defeat the deadly disease.
Responding to a question, Mr. Badal made it clear that Punjab has not received any monetary assistance from the Central Government to fight against Covid-19. Actually the amount state has received, is the GST compensation, Revenue loss grant and outstanding Disaster Relief fund grant, he said, adding that Central Government still owes four months arrears to the state. Meanwhile, he reiterated, "It was not time for politics. If the Centre is unable to assist the states at this moment, we are working to tackle the situation at own level, after considering the compulsion of the centre.
On the question of wheat procurement, Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal said that it is a good aspect that Punjab is getting an investment of Rs. 25000 crore through the wheat procurement and this amount is huge for our economy. He reiterated that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government would procure every single grain of wheat and under the preventive measures state government has increased the procurement season to 8 weeks from 3 weeks to maintain social distance in the grain markets.