CHANDIGARH, FEBRUARY 28: Punjab Forests, Printing & Stationery and Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Minister Mr. Sadhu Singh Dharmsot termed the Budget 2020-21 presented by Finance Minister Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal as progressive, pro-scheduled and backward classes and minorities.
He lauded the Punjab budget and said that it would boost Punjab economy and open a new path for development in all sectors.
Mr. Dharmsot said that during the year 2020-21 a total of Rs 2,000 crore is being provided for the waiver of loans including Rs 520 crore for agricultural and landless labourers.
He said the budget has a total allocation of Rs. 901 crore under various welfare schemes for educational, social and other development programs for the protection, promotion and upliftment of the interests of the downtrodden sections of the society.
Mr. Dharmsot said that the Punjab government has also brought state’s Scheduled Castes, backward classes, Christians, Widows, Divorced and Widows of any caste category under the ambit of Ashirwad Scheme. An amount of Rs. 21,000 is provided to girls on their marriage under this scheme. Rs. 302 Crores have been disbursed to one Lakh fifty thousand beneficiaries in 2017 besides another Rs. 165 Crores have been allocated for 2020-21.
Mr. Dharmsot said the budget will provide Rs 46 Crores for the promotion of infrastructure services in scheduled caste dominated villages and for basic services like education, health, water supply, sanitation, toilets, waste water drainage etc. He said that state government is going to launch special state sponsored scheme for the improvement of villages with over 50 per cent Scheduled Castes population. For this scheme, Rs. 10 crore has been allocated during the Punjab budget-2020-21, he said.
The state government has got released more than 6,000 hectares of forest land from illegal occupation in the last 3 years and these efforts have increased the forest area by 11,363 hectares, Dharmsot added.
He said that the state government intends to increase the area under forest from 6.8 per cent to 7.5.
He said that so far 97 lakh saplings have been given free of cost to the people and various organizations under the Ghar Ghar Hariyali scheme.
He said that in the Punjab Budget 2020-21, Rs. 6 crore has been reserved for wildlife management and Rs. 180 crore has been reserved for planting 57 lakh saplings under PANKAMPA scheme.
Mr. Dharmsot further said that under Green Mission Punjab and PANKAMPA, it has been proposed to plant 8,000 hectares of land and to plant 50 lakh saplings under Sub-Mission on Agro-Forestry.
In addition, Rs. 10 crore has been earmarked for the development of Chattbir Zoo, Zikarpur as a tourist destination by infrastructure development including underground pipes, water pipes, electrical cables and sewerage network systems.
