Hours before he formally submitted his resignation as Punjab Chief Minister yesterday to the Governor, Captain Amarinder Singh had on Saturday written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, apprising her of his decision, while expressing anguish at the political events of the last about five months, which he said were clearly “not based on full understanding of the national imperatives of Punjab and its key concerns.”

“Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hard-earned peace and development in the state, and that the efforts I have been focusing during the last few years, would continue unabated, ensuring justice to one and all,” Amarinder had written in his letter to Sonia, indicating his apprehension of instability in Punjab as a result of the political developments in the state unit of the Congress.

At the same time, Amarinder expressed his personal satisfaction at having done his best for the people as chief minister of Punjab, which, as a border state, “has many geo-political and other internal security concerns, which I tried to handle effectively without any compromise”.

While she (Sonia) herself may be personally aware of some of the things achieved in the last four and a half years, “the people of Punjab are looking up to the Congress for its mature and effective public policies, which not only reflect upon good politics, but also address the concerns of the common man that are specific to this border state,” wrote Amarinder, while informing the Congress President about his decision to demit the office of the CM Punjab, after completing nine-and-half years as such from 2002 to 2007 and 2017 to September 2021.

In these nine-and-a-half years, Captain Amarinder said he had worked wholeheartedly for the welfare of the people of Punjab. “This was extremely satisfying for me because not only I established the rule of law, and ensured transparent governance, but maintained ethical conduct even in management of political affairs, winning eight out of 13 seats in the Parliament Elections in 2019 and the PRI and ULB Elections decisively,” he wrote.

Amarinder said his government had fulfilled 89.2 per cent, while work was in progress on the remaining commitments.

On the issue of the sacrilege cases and the subsequent police action of 2015, Captain Amarinder said the criminal proceedings in these cases are currently underway and I am sure that in due course justice will be done in due course.

On controversial Power Purchase Agreements, Amarinder said subsidised power was supplied to the industry at annual cost of over Rs 2000 Crore and review of the PPAs is currently under way.

Talking about the farmers, Amarinder wrote that in line with its commitment to provide debt relief and repeal statutory provisions of attaching their properties, his government had given debt relief of Rs 4,624 Crore to 5.64 lakh farmers and Rs 526 Crore to 2.68 lakh farm workers.

On drug menace, Amarinder said besides establishing a Special Task Force (STF), 62,744 persons had been arrested for drug trade.

On employment, Amarinder said his government facilitated 62,748 government jobs, 7,37,963 jobs in the private sector and 10,93,000 self-employment.