Manpreet Singh Badal – An Insight

-Education Qualification: BA(Hons.) graduate from Delhi’s St Stephen’s college and LL.B.(Hons.) bar-at-law from London
– Elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in a By-election in May 1995, 1997 and in February, 2002 and 2007 and remained Member of several committees of Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
– Member Senate, Panjab University Chandigarh, Punjabi University Patiala; Member Regional Engineering College, Jalandhar.

– He worked for the overall development of the constituency; attended all the conference of the party.

– Remained Member of General Purposes Committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha and Chief Whip of SAD Legislature Party in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha; working as Spokesman and Incharge, Media & Publicity Wing of SAD.

– Visited Iraq to see the system of agriculture farming as a Member of Punjab Delegation.

– Travels/ Countries – Most of the European countries, North America And south East Asia.

– Manpreet Singh Badal neither has any security cover nor does he use red light. He said: “I am in public life on my own choice and feel no threat to my life from any body”. He had told the police authorities that he did not need static police guards at his residence. The police authorities said, the deployment of static guards there to protect the government property and not for his security. He often drive his own vehicle.

Permanent Address- VPO Badal, District – Muktsar

No bouquets and lunch please, save money: FM to organisers

No bouquets and lunch please, save money: FM to organisers
An article by Rakhi Jagga
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/no-bouquets-and-lunch-please-save-money-fm-to-organisers/635273/0
Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal gives away prizes to the winners of a lucky coupon scheme, in Ludhiana on Thursday.

Small savings dept function:In a cost-cutting measure, Manpreet Badal tells officials not to make additional expenditure on garlands and mementos for leaders

Charity begins at home. The Finance Minister of cash-strapped Punjab, Manpreet Badal, seems to have taken the saying quite seriously. He ordered the small savings department not to unnecessarily spend money on the visits of ministers, including himself.

Ahead of a function of the department, organised at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan here on Thursday, the minister passed an order that said: “In the function, no extra expenditure should be made for me and other leaders. No money should be spent on garlands, bouquets, mementos and even lunch.”

The small savings agents should be, however, given refreshments like before, added the order, which was complied with.

Refreshments such as kaju barfi and fried cashews were presented before the minister and other leaders, but the size of the plates was smaller than before. Manpreet, however, did not eat anything, though he did help himself to diet cola twice.

He said such savings should start from each department as crores are wasted every year on pleasing the “chief guests”. “Punjab should save its each penny, and such savings should start from the small savings department functions,” added Manpreet.

The FM is already famous for driving his own car and having minimum security.

Chief guests and guests of honour at government functions are usually given silver plated mementos, shawls and bouquets, besides being garlanded without fail, which incur a lot of expenditure. Lunches and dinners, for which the best caterers are engaged to serve an elaborated menu, also cost a fortune.

Manpreet advised that if all leaders started following these norms, the state could save a lot.

The FM gave away prizes to the winners of the small savings department’s 34th lucky coupon scheme.

Following his instructions to control expenses, the department has reduced the prize money of its 35th lucky coupon scheme. While the first prize of Rs 20 lakh has been reduced to half, the rule of two second prizes of Rs 5 lakh each has been scrapped and there will be only second prize. Director, Small Savings, S S Khara said this was done according to a government policy.

The first prize for the 34th lucky coupon scheme went to Kalu Ram, a carpenter in Bandiwal village of Fazilka. He had invested Rs 40,000 and in the National Small Saving Scheme for more than seven years. He said he would spend the prize money of Rs 20 lakh on the education of his two daughters and a son.

Provide quality education and better infrastructure to students, says Punjab Governor

Provide quality education and better infrastructure to students, says Punjab Governor
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/provide-quality-education-and-better-infrastructure-students-says-punjab-governor

Punjab Newsline Network
Wednesday, 05 May 2010
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Governor Shivraj V. Patil, while presiding over the the meeting of Board of Governors of Punjab Public School, Nabha, reviewed the activities, achievements and future programmes of the school.

Stressing upon imparting quality education to students, Patil emphasized on generating funds from old students who are well settled in a country and abroad to provide better facilities and infrastructure to the students. He said school management should use machines for cleaning and washing the school building instead of doing this manually. This will save money, labour and time, he added.

Punjab Finance Minister, Manpreet Singh Badal raised a point to motivate students to appear for NDA Exams. For this, he said the funds being given by the Punjab Government for scholarship to encourage students would be further enhanced, he assured. He also suggested to prepare a directory of old students.

Kanwar Sandhu stressed upon developing a mechanism to ensure that not even a single student should lose the academic year.

It has also been discussed in the meeting to constitute a committee to raise funds from the old students.

State’s economy back on track

State’s economy back on track, says Manpreet
Amarjit Thind/Tribune News Service

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100411/punjab.htm#12
Jalandhar, April 10
It’s news that will bring cheer to all Punjabi’s who had been worried about the state’s economy. Finance Minister Manpreet Badal has said the worst was over and despite the global meltdown, the state has registered a significant growth in the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

Since the state’s economy was largely dependent on the domestic market and the agriculture sector, it has registered a significant growth during the past one year, whereas the global and national economy received a drubbing due to the slowdown, he pointed out.

Badal was in the city to inaugurate the website of local unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) here. The major factor in this upswing has been six consecutive bumper crops and prices of agriculture produce witnessing a steep hike, he revealed. The FM also added that in the 11th five-year plan the economic growth of the state was pegged at 5.9 per cent, but it attained a growth of 6.6 per cent this year. Similarly, as compared to the national agriculture growth of one per cent, the state has witnessed a growth of four per cent, he added.

That agriculture was the mainstay of the state economy has been reiterated once again, as this sector contributed 30 per cent to the economy, whereas it was only 19 per cent at the national level, he added. Regrettably, the state’s performance was not up to the mark in the treasury sector, he said. Badal also said the state lacked in the tertiary and service industry and to give a fillip to this sector, Information and Technology (IT) parks spread over 1,200 acre in Rajpura and 225 acre in Kapurthala had been cleared.

The rationale of not increasing the retirement age of Government employees

In a state where youngsters are migrating abroad and to other states for jobs, the issue of increasing retirement age for government employees would have further hindered the changes of youngsters from securing government jobs.

By increasing the retirement age, the state would have only prolonged the anguish of youngsters who are vying for jobs. Educated, bright youngsters are increasingly seeking to migrate due to lack of opportunities within Punjab. And the window of opportunity which the state government can possibly provide to youngsters would have been shut for another two years.

To add to this is the global financial crisis where more and more people continue to lose their jobs dampening the global job availability. Governments all over are struggling with deficits and fiscal crisis, which is preventing the injection of money into the economy to boost the private sector. In such a situation, the onus for creating more opportunities for youngsters falls on the shoulders of the government.

If one looks at the private sector, the premium is clearly on youth. This ensures that fresh ideas and fresh blood is injected into the workplace. State governments too require new dynamic youngsters to encourage the integration of youth in the activities of the state government. Brought up in an increasingly competitive world, these youngsters also promise to make states more competitive in a globalized economy by tapping on their ideas, energy and youthful idealism.

This does not imply that the state should ignore experience and seniority. But an over reliance on one can lead to problems. What we need is to create the right balance between youth and seniority, so that both can complement each another. Right now, the emphasis is too much on seniority. And by increasing the retirement age, the state would have further aggravated this imbalance.