Soon, a policy for new tubewell connections

CHANDIGARH : Punjab power minister Harbhajan Singh on Tuesday announced in the House that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will soon launch an agriculture pump sets policy to give new tube well connections to the farmers in the state.

The minister was replying to a query raised by MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the question hour in the ongoing budget session of the legislative assembly.

Lalpura, a ruling party MLA, asked the government to give a reply on how many farmers have deposited security for new tube wells and were not given the connections.

The minister, in his reply, informed the house that the previous government in 2018 had stopped giving new connections and it was not resumed after that. There are already more than 14 lakh tube wells in the state.

Answering another query, forests and wildlife minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said that some people sold the forest land that comes under section 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900 in Karuran village of Ropar district. However, the ownership of land was private.

He added that the government has initiated a case for recovery of sale amount and cancellation of registries against four senior officers of the department and Ropar police has been asked to register an FIR against them and take action as per law.

On a query by AAP MLA Manwinder Singh Giaspura, rural development and panchayats minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that it was not possible to hold any kind of inquiry against the focal points which were set up long back by the previous governments.

“Rather we should hold discussions to bring a policy for making them viable for setting up industries again,” added the minister.