Budget for camps in next fiscal: Badal.

Vowing to keep the mega medical camps going, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said here on Sunday that his government would keep provision for it in the next state budget.

Lashing out at the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for dismayed performance in lifting, he said the

money for the cotton industry was in accordance with the agricultural produce of the area. He promised the opening of Textile Parks in the cotton belt of the Malwa region; Maize and Agro-Forestry Parks in the Doaba region; and Sugarcane Parks in the Majha region of the state.

The new industrial policy would be unveiled next year, and it was based on feedback from the industry and analysis of the cropping pattern in the entire state, said Badal.

The CM was accompanied by her daughter-in-law and local member of parliament, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, when he laid the foundation stone of a drug de-addiction centre at Khyala village of this district. The structure was built for Rs. 40 lakh. He also visited a combined fish and pig farm at Malikpur Khayala village.

Addressing the media on the concluding day of two-day mega medical camp here on Sunday, Badal said the monetary provisions to support the philanthropic cause were necessary.

"From the next financial year, the state government will keep separate provision in the budget for these camps," he said. "The camps not only provide people with quality health services at doorsteps but also trace the root of fatal diseases."

Badal promised to remove all shortcomings of the camp at Mansa and ensure proper record of registered patients, besides financial assistance to patients and referral for advanced treatment. "The recruitment of specialist doctors is in the pipeline," he said.

Badal said the next industrial policy would encourage farmers to adopt crop diversification to bail them out of the wheat-paddy cycle that had depleted the natural resources of the state. He attacked the Centre of the lack of remunerative minimum support price to especially wheat and cotton farmers.

Blaming the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for slow lifting of the produce, he said the central agency had stayed away from all the 45 cotton markets of the state and made only eyewash tours of 17 or 18 markets.

"I will bring it to the notice of the union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar," said the CM.

The Bathinda MP, Harsmirat Kaur Badal, said the state government would offer cancer patients free-of-cost transport to hospitals.

Cabinet minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon, chief parliamentary secretaries Navjot Kaur Sidhu and Mohinder Kaur Josh; Balwinder Singh Bhunder, member of the Rajya Sabha; legislators Chittan Singh Samao and Prem Mittal; principal secretary (health) Vinnie Mahajan; and principal secretary (medical education) Anjali Bhanwra were present.

Source : hindustantimes.com