Chandigarh, Oct 16 (PTI) Punjab minister Aman Arora on Sunday said the Bhagwant Mann government took "historic" decisions in the past months which the previous governments had failed to take in 70 years.

Presenting a report card of the Mann government which completed seven months, Arora said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation adopted a zero-tolerance policy against corruption to bring back lost glory of the state.

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He slammed the previous governments led by the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP for "pushing Punjab into colossal debt" and alleged that most of their leaders indulged in malpractices and filled their own coffers.

The Information and Public Relations Minister said the Mann government took “historic” decisions in the past seven months which the previous governments had failed to take in more than 70 years of their rule.

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On employment, Arora said the government has regularised services of 9,000 teachers and a process was initiated to regularise the services of remaining 28,000 contractual employees.

An anti-corruption helpline was launched to combat corruption in Punjab, he said.

"One of the biggest achievements of the Mann government is cracking down on corrupt leaders. In the past seven months, the state government arrested more than 220 influential people, senior politicians and bureaucrats who looted Punjab and were being patronized by successive governments,” the minister said.

On the ongoing inquiries against certain opposition leaders, Arora said unlike previous governments, the AAP is not indulging in political vendetta and actions will only be initiated against them if they are found to be guilty in the probe.

He also listed various other decisions of the government, including giving minimum support price on moong crop, 100 mohalla clinics, Rs 1,500 per acre for direct seeding of rice, enhancing sugarcane rates by Rs 20 per quintal and free 300 units of electricity per month.

Stating that the AAP dispensation is pro-people and pro-farmers, he said Chief Minister Mann is working industriously to make the state as 'Rangla Punjab' (vibrant Punjab) again.

Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring took a dig at the AAP government for comparing its performance of seven months with that of previous 70 years.

"Exaggeration is a small word for such a hugely bogus claim," he said.

"These claims are outrageously ridiculous and on top of it, the government has yet again spent crores of rupees to make such hoax claims as this money could have been spent on purchasing medicines for rural hospitals," he said.

Referring to the claims made in government advertisements, Warring challenged the government to prove even one of these claims to be true.

The very first claim of providing MSP for 'moong' is completely false as the government procured only 11 per cent of the crop produced while 89 per cent was sold, by farmers in distress, to private buyers at a much lower price than the MSP, he said.

Similarly the claim about Rs 1,500 per acre subsidy for direct seeding of rice is again far from truth as not even 10 per cent farmers have been provided such subsidy.

On the 'Mohalla Clinics', Warring said these were extension counters of the Aam Aadmi Party with hardly any medical facilities.

Instead of strengthening the existing strong network of rural dispensaries, the government has set up showpieces where hardly any medical services are provided, Warring said in a statement.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)