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JALANDHAR, May 3 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said here today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did for Punjab which no other Government did in the past.
Speaking to different groups of people in the course of his Mandal and polling booth level campaigning for BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha by-election, Dr Jitendra Singh said that for almost 7 decades since independence, the state of Punjab was being ruled mostly by Congress or other non-BJP parties. But it was only after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister that he addressed all the pending issues of the people of Punjab with a deep sense of sensitivity.
Citing an example, the Minister said, the demand to open up Kartarpur corridor had been pending ever since independence and neither Congress nor Akali Dal government gave priority to it but when Modi took over as Prime Minister, he took a firm decision and got the corridor created for the benefit of the Sikh pilgrims going across the border to offer prayers at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.
The Minister said that the Prime Minister’s reverence for the Punjabi culture and ethos is evident from the manner in which he never fails to pay reverence to the Sikh gurus at every religious festival and strongly respects their sentiments.
As far as development is concerned, Dr Jitendra Singh said that even though Punjab was always the leading agricultural state of the country, it never got its due in the earlier governments. It was only in the last 9 years all the development works have taken place in Punjab.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, now there is a network of roads under Central Road Fund and central PMGSY schemes. The most striking example is the express road corridor being constructed from Delhi to Amritsar which will also act as a link to connect the other holy places on the way.
The Union Minister expressed concern about growing lawlessness and state of anarchy in the State of Punjab and vowed that BJP party is committed to restore the ethos of brotherhood, nationalism and mutual harmony among the people in the State.