Khemkaran/Patti, Feb 8, 2024 (Yes Punjab News)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today called for giving a special package to border districts to ensure their all round development, even as he castigated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for failing to provide quality education and health facilities in the border belt.
Interacting with farmers during the course of the Punjab Bachao Yatra which witnessed never before seen gatherings at Patti during the course of which former minister Adaish Partap Singh Kairon accompanied the SAD president,
Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the SAD will strive to secure a special package for the border belt including incentives to establish industrial units besides pumping in money to augment infrastructure as well as provide technical institutions to skill the youth”.
Mr Badal said it was condemnable that the AAP government had ignored the border belt completely. A large number of people approached the SAD president to complain how border schools were sans teachers and how dispensaries existed on paper only.
They also complained that establishment of Aam Aadmi Clinics had emptied rural dispensaries due to which they were facing great difficulties.
The SAD president said it was even more condemnable that the AAP legislators in the border belt were busy in illegal mining and extending patronage to drug smugglers rather than indulging in any public welfare activity.
He said the SAD stood for providing world class facilities be it education, health or sports in the border belt and would come out with a border areas development plan once it assumed power in the State.
Mr Badal also took on chief minister Bhagwant Mann for failing the rural masses. “Mr Bhagwant Mann promised to run the government from the villages but has handed over the reins of the government to Arvind Kejriwal due to which all rural development schemes have come to a halt”.
He said this was the reason why rural roads were crumbling and no civic amenities were being provided in small towns.
The Punjab Bachao Yatra received an overwhelming response in both Patti and Khemkaran constituencies with ten kilometer long lines of vehicles including cars, jeeps, tractors and motorcycles joining the cavalcade of the SAD president who was profusely garlanded and showered with shower petals all along the Yatra route.
Mr Badal also met people from all sections of society during the yatra including youth who complained that they were the worst sufferers with the AAP government hiring outsiders to few government jobs that were on offer.
The youth, while citing the 2.5 lakh strong government jobs given during the erstwhile SAD tenure, pledged to support the SAD in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Senior party leaders Bikram Singh Majithia, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Alwinder Pakhoke and Veer Singh Lapoke accompanied the SAD president during the Yatra in the two constituencies. EOM
