Chandigarh, Mar 21 (PTI) Past five years saw a serious disconnect between the people and the government as “rulers” considered themselves “masters” and the public their “servile subjects”, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit told the state assembly on Monday.
Purohit made the remark without naming the previous Congress-led regime, in his address to the year’s first session of Vidhan Sabha.
Outlining the AAP government’s roadmap for the next five years in the state, the governor said the government is committed to rooting out illegal syndicates in transport, liquor and sand mining in the state with a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption.
The governor also spoke of improving health and education sectors, establishing rule of law in letter and spirit, delivering government services at people’s doorstep, curbing the drug menace and a thorough probe into the sacrilege incidents.
“The past five years have seen a serious disconnect between the people and the government. The rulers became inaccessible, not only to the common people but even to their representatives,” Governor Purohit said.
“They began to look at themselves as masters and the people as their servile subjects. This ran against the very concept of democracy in which people alone are the masters and those in the government have to function as their conscientious servants,” the governor added.
“To my government, accessibility is the cornerstone on which the edifice of its relationship of trust and mutual affection with the people rests,” he added.
He said the major area of concern of his government was the “injection of bitterness, personal as well as political, into the affairs of the state”.
“Character assassination, which has never been a component of Punjabi culture, became the norm. This tendency was also at the root of the confrontationist politics that Punjab saw, during the past years. The people of the state have clearly rebuffed this confrontationist tendency by voting in favour of an agenda for good governance and development,” he added.
He said his “government believes that in democracy, people are the king (Janta raj mein janta hi raja).” “My government is committed to ending all sorts of illegal syndicates in transport, liquor, and sand mining in the state. These anti-social elements have looted Punjab in the past during previous regimes and deprived the state exchequer of the funds to the tune of thousands of crore which could have been used for the welfare of common people,” said Purohit.
Stating that the government will work to bring back the heydays of Punjab, the governor said the people of Punjab have overwhelmingly voted for change and gave a historic mandate.
“This mandate is of hope and aspiration,” said the governor, saying the people have reposed faith in not only a new approach to governance but also to a new political culture that “stresses the need to place the citizen at the centre of our thoughts, actions and policies”.
“It is a mandate that carries the dreams, aspirations of the ‘aam aadmi’ regardless of caste, class, gender or creed. In the age of cynicism, people of Punjab came together to usher in ‘inqilab’ in the hope of a better day — in hope of re-establishing ‘Rangla’ Punjab,” said the governor. PTI CHS VSD RAX RAX
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Source: The Print
