PUNJAB DRAFTING VISION DOCUMENT TO ACHIEVE 10 PC PER ANNUM GROWTH RATE BY 2047: CHEEMA

Visions to achieve growth rate of 7.5pc by 2030

Chandigarh: Punjab Finance and Planning Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has been drafting a vision document to achieve a rate of growth of the economy at 7.5 percent per annum by the year 2030 and 10 percent by the year 2047. He said that this document would act as a guiding document for successive governments to focus their efforts and policies in the right direction.

Disclosing this while addressing a press conference here at Punjab Bhawan, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the comprehensive vision document being drafted by the Planning Department would highlight the current status, sector-wise challenges, short-term (2030) and long-term (2047) targets, and strategies to achieve the identified targets. “It aims at converging efforts of different administrative departments and agencies to meet the challenges and achieve identified sectoral goals”, he added.

Divulging further, the Finance Minister said that this document would also highlight the grey areas which require serious and rigorous efforts to rejuvenate the State’s economy while giving impetus to employment, industry, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure development, sustainable cities, and communities. “Efforts are being made to focus on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, health infrastructure and provisioning, achieving gender equality, affordable and clean energy, climate action and natural resource conservation”, said Cheema.

The Finance Minister said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led government is committed to regaining the old glory of the state by making of ‘Rangla Punjab’ through effective economic policies and people-oriented programs like ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwar’. He said that so far three cabinet meetings have been held at Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Mansa under the ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwar’ programme. “For the first time in the state, a revolution has been brought in the entire governance system by making the bureaucracy directly accountable to the people”, he added.

Highlighting the importance of the ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwar’, Mr. Cheema said that during these program common people, organisations, and NGOs can raise their issues directly before the Cabinet Minister of the concerned department which has increased the pressure to provide timely services to the people and completing the pending works at the district level administration. “I along with my cabinet colleague Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal held meetings with 23 different unions and associations during this program recently at Mansa’, said Harpal Singh Cheema while adding that this program also helps the government in getting direct feedback from the people.

Emphasizing that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government’s topmost accountability is towards the people of the state, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that during the recent cabinet meeting held at Mansa, a decision was taken to regularise the services of 14239 teachers. He said that such a decision has been taken for the first time in the history of Punjab by any government and that too during the initial years of its tenure. He said that most of the guarantees given to the people of Punjab have been implemented and the remaining promises would also be fulfilled.