Capt. Amarinder Singh along with his ministers was sworn in on March 16, 2017, after Congress stormed to power in 2017 assembly polls.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh has said that "revival of confidence" across all sections of society was the biggest achievement of the Congress government in the past one year.
He said the farm issues continued to remain the top priority of the government which also thrust on attracting investment, skill development and crop diversification, among other steps required to revive the economic growth.
"Revival of confidence across all sections of the society is, in my opinion, the biggest achievement of my government during this one year. In the decade of the SAD-BJP misrule, people had lost all confidence and trust in governance, administrative and police functions.
"We have restored their confidence by simply changing the way things are being done across every function of the government, be it policing or ease of doing business or employment generation or elimination of mafia and goonda raj," Amarinder said here recently when he was asked what was his government's biggest achievement during the first year of the term.
Amarinder along with his ministers was sworn in on March 16, 2017, after Congress stormed to power in 2017 assembly polls.
"It has been a successful roller-coaster ride for my government. Roller-coaster because of the sheer challenge of battling the fiscal mess and overall development crisis that we inherited from the previous government. And successful because, notwithstanding these problems, we have done and achieved far more than was feasible under the circumstances.
"Quite frankly, when I took over, I was also apprehensive about how we will manage, given the financial crisis, which, as it turned out, was much bigger than what we had expected...," he claimed.
Asked about the major challenge of his government, Amarinder told PTI here, "The major challenge has, of course, been the paucity of funds and resources. This scuttled some of our plans for the first year, causing a few delays also here and there in the implementation of some of the promises. But we are on top of it and have found new ways of generating revenue..."
With opposition criticizing Congress government for not fulfilling poll promises like implementing complete farm debt waiver and smartphones, Amarinder lashed out at Akalis and AAP for resorting to "blatant fabrications and petty street politics", saying farmers remained a top priority for his government.
"As far as debt waiver is concerned, we had not defined any time-frame to complete the process post government formation. And the fiscal crisis we have inherited from the Akalis prevents us from expediting the process.
"Yet, I have committed to completing the first phase of the waiver (covering 10.25 lakh farmers, which is the majority of the state's farmers) by November this year, and I can assure these farmers that they would be free of their debts in another few months," he asserted.
Amarinder said that the government was working towards total waiver, as promised, but the same will be done in a phased manner. "Our priority was to rescue the small and marginal farmers, who were the worst hit due to their huge debt burdens," he said.
On smartphones, too, there was no question of reneging on our promise but, given the financial crisis facing the state, it is not something we can implement immediately. For one, there are other more critical problems that need to be resolved first. So this does get somewhat relegated to the next stage. In any case, there was no time-frame for the fulfilment of this promise," he said.
Asked why his government was not taking action against those who "looted" the state during the previous regime, the CM said, "While I do not believe in vendetta politics, I have made it clear that we will not spare anyone found guilty of any misdemeanour. We cannot just throw anyone behind bars on the basis of allegations."
He said that government has ordered detailed probes into all allegations, whether it was false cases or sacrilege or illegal mining. "And it is my promise that whoever is found guilty in these probes will be actioned upon, as per the law," he said.
On new investments, Amarinder said his government received several investment proposals in a wide gamut of sectors ranging from solar power to tourism, agro & food processing, health, education, and manufacturing.
On prospects of Congress pan India, Amarinder said, "The prospects for the Congress are extremely bright, with the process of the party's revival becoming visible in recent months. While things began looking up much earlier, the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party president has given a major fillip to the party's prospects and the results will be even more tangible in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.