Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on Thursday that the Punjab government was committed to weed out the menace of corruption, calling upon people to name any corrupt officer so that exemplary punishment could be ensured.
Mann stated it after a surprise check at the local complex and the Suvidha centre at Samrala in Ludhiana district.
"Corruption cannot be tolerated at any cost. If anyone seeks bribes from the people to do any work, then they must expose the name of such an officer for the severest of severe action," he said.
As part of its anti-corruption tirade, the government has already put several corrupt officers behind the bars, according to the chief minister.
Appealing to the people to play a proactive role in making the state corruption-free, Mann said the menace could be eliminated only with the active support and cooperation of people.
The chief minister said the burning of paddy straw was a joint issue that involved several states and it should be resolved jointly.
Mann said the armchair economists sitting in air conditioned offices at Delhi were not giving any solution, but continuously disgracing the farmers by only accusing them of burning paddy.
He said humiliation and injustice towards Punjabi farmers was totally unwarranted and undesirable.
"The Union government is playing cheap politics by blaming the hardworking and resilient farmers on this issue," he said.
Mann said the air quality index of Faridabad and other cities of Haryana was worse than Punjab, but the NDA government was putting the onus on Punjabi farmers.
He added that it reflected "the anti-farmers and anti-Punjab mindset of the Union government and the BJP".
Reiterating the firm commitment of the state government to procure every single grain of paddy, Mann said that he was personally monitoring the entire procurement process to ensure that farmers do not face any sort of inconvenience.
He said the entire process of ongoing procurement and lifting of the paddy crop would be completed soon.
On illegal colonies, Mann said the state government was already contemplating this issue and a solution would be worked out.
-With PTI Input
