Presenting a report card on his maiden session in Parliament, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, Raghav Chadha, on Friday, said he raised 42 questions on pro-Punjab issues during the just concluded monsoon session.
Taking to Twitter, the AAP leader said he registered an attendance of 93 percent which he utilised to raise the voice of Punjabis through 42 questions and participated in eight debates, during the monsoon session of Parliament.
The first-time member of Parliament (MP) said he also introduced two private member’s Bills in the Rajya Sabha. The first was the Minimum Support Price Guarantee Bill which sought to guarantee MSP to farmers and the second was the Constitution Amendment bill 2022 aimed at stopping ‘resort politics’.
Chadha said among other issues raised by him in the Parliament to safeguard the interests of the people of Punjab, was the issue of GST imposed by the Central government on the inns near Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar. The AAP leader claimed following his intervention, the Central government was forced to abolish GST on inns.
He also demanded from the Central government that it should immediately run the promised ‘Gurukripa’ trains to enable Sikh pilgrims from Punjab to visit prominent Sikh holy shrines all over India.
Chadha said he drew special attention to the sharply depleting ground water level in Punjab and demanded a special assistance package from the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to address the problem. The AAP leader said he also raised the issue of inflation and blamed the policies of the Modi government for rising prices of essential commodities.
Some of the other major issues of Punjab raised by the AAP leader in Rajya Sabha included projects for rural development, international air service from Mohali and Amritsar, damage to crops due to pink bollworm, status of National Health Mission in Punjab, schemes for unorganized labour, skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel and fall of the rupee against the dollar.
Chadha said he also raised the supply of drinking water in Punjab, GDP growth rate of India, railway lines in Punjab, data on employment options in the country for youth, drug related issues, and ongoing power crisis in the country, farmer suicides and job vacancies jobs in the government.