Bittu questions Harsimrat on Nanhi Chaan

Nav Inquilab Yatra reaches Bathinda
Bittu questions Harsimrat on Nanhi Chaan
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 15

“Instead of checking the female foeticide menace in Punjab, the Nanhi Chaan programme has just been confined to putting up hoardings and deriving mileage out of it by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal,” alleged the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) president, Ravneet Singh Bittu, also an MP from Anandpur Sahib.
On the 15th day of PYC’s Nav Inquilab Yatra (NIY) in Bathinda today, Bittu asked the promoters of the Nanhi Chaan programme to come up with statistical details about the success of the programme along with the details of beneficiaries.
“Just spending crores on the publicity of the project, by inserting advertisements on TV would not serve any purpose. People want something else,” he added.
On the one hand, the ruling party leaders claim to have a penchant for protecting environment and on the other, the state government has no budgetary provision for enhancing the forest cover in the state during this budget year which is in an alarming condition now, Bittu alleged.
Accusing the state government of promoting favouritism, Bittu alleged that some big industrial houses were roped in for programmes like Nanhi Chaan and given benefits in corporate deals with the government.
While addressing the gathering here, Bittu said the cancer problem in Malwa belt had assumed gigantic proportions but the government was still sleeping on the issue. He mentioned the state government’s claim of installing RO systems as a mere gimmick for taking credit as it was being done under the Centre’s flagship programme—the National Rural Health Mission.
Malwa enjoys patronage from the deputy chief minister of the state, still, it is lagging behind in development. “Even after completion of three and a half years of rule, all policies and projects are on papers and nothing is visible on the ground,” the PYC president said.
Showing a number of complaints and applications received from people on the way, Bittu said, “The time has come, now the politicians of the state instead of moving in hi-fi SUVs have to go to every house to personally interact with the people and listen to their grievances.”
Speaking about the Manpreet’s Jago Punjab Yatra, Bittu said, “It would be better if Manpreet had named it ‘Pol Khol Yatra’ and exposed the reality of the ruling Badals.”