Balachaur/Chandigarh, September 12
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president today said the next SAD government would establish a Kandi Development ministry to develop the State’s sub-mountainous region on holistic lines besides laying a four lane expressway from Pathankot to Ropar to boost development in the region.
The SAD president, who was addressing a mammoth conference here along with senior leader Honey Tonsa as part of the party’s Punjab Bachao campaign, also asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to tell where was the 12 hour day time power supply which the latter pompously announced his government was giving from various stages. “Punjabis are suffering from ten hour power cuts daily”, he asserted even while promising the SAD would make Punjab power surplus again once it took over the reins of the State.
Asserting that all issues of the people of the Kandi belt would be taken up for resolution, Sukhbir Badal said “we will provide deep tubewells to fulfill your irrigation needs. Irrigation facilities available through the Kandi canal will be further augmented and drip irrigation and underground pipe lines will be laid to take water to each and every field”. He also announced that a Medical College would be established in Nawansheher and a Veterinary College in this town.
Asserting that while the SAD was planning ahead, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and chief minister Bhagwant Mann were busy in looting the State and its resources, Mr Badal said “things have come to such a stage that the chief minister’s office has become a den of corruption where rapists, gangsters and drug lords are given clean chits in lieu of money”. He cited how the chief minister’s wife –Gurpreet Kaur Mann had negotiated freedom for a serial rapist by striking an Rs five crore deal with the accused besides rampant corruption in postings and transfers of officers, CLU cases and contracts which had been highlighted by the Enforcement Directorate in the high court.
Stating that the chief minister was also not sparing public life, Mr Badal disclosed how a gangster – Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, who had fifty criminal cases registered against him, had been inducted into AAP and even made the party’s halka incharge from Zira. “How can the AAP government counter the scourge of gangsters if it is in cahoots with it?” he asked.
He also highlighted how the government was silencing democratic dissent by talking about the torture inflicted on anti-drug activist Mohanjit Singh Sheron for showing a black flag to the chief minister and the intimidation and subsequent suicide of Gulzar Singh who had asked finance minister Harpal Cheema why synthetic drugs were being sold unchecked.
Urging the people to support the SAD which had always delivered on its promises, Mr Badal spoke on how some forces wanted to push Punjab back into the dark era of the 1980s. “These forces are even attacking me as they understand that I stand for peace and communal harmony”. He asserted that the SAD stood for “sarbat da bhala” and had always stood with each and every community in the State. “If we created the Heritage Street near Sri Darbar Sahib we also beautified Sri Durgiana Mandir and the Ram Teerath Sthal”.
Speaking about his action plan for Punjab once a SAD government was formed, Mr Badal said beneficiaries would be given 50 kg wheat at Rs four per kg under the ‘aata-daal’ scheme and that the Shagun benefit would be increased to Rs one lakh and the old age pension to Rs 3,100 per month. He also announced that the SC Scholarship scheme would be revived and the State would give 75 per cent subsidy on animal husbandry projects. He also announced that youth would be eligible for an Rs ten lakh interest free loan for entrepreneurship development and that MSP would be fixed on milk.
Badal also recalled the selfless service done by former SAD leader Ch Nand Lal in the constituency on the occasion. Senior leaders who spoke at the conference included Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Sukhdeep Singh Sukar and Saranjit Singh Jhinjher.