Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced that he would be available to listen to the grievances of the public at large on every Wednesday at the party’s head office here.The SAD president took this decision on the last day of the three day review exercise being conducted by the party to analyse the results of the Lok Sabha elections.The SAD president said he would be available at the party office here on every Wednesday from 11 am to 4 pm and that anyone could approach him during this period. He also disclosed that he had decided to keep himself free on every Monday and Tuesday for official work only and requested the people not to visit his office on these days to allow him to concentrate on official work. He also announced that Thursday and Friday would be kept aside for visits to various parts of Punjab.
Besides the decision to meet the public on every Wednesday, which was taken by the SAD president to keep a close watch on the administration following feedback by the SAD leadership, Mr Sukhbir Badal also announced that Cabinet ministers would be made incharge of one district each and that they would hold meetings in these districts in the first week of every month.
During the course of the three day exercise, there was also consensus that the SAD should form a lean organisation structure to make it more responsible and effective. It was felt that since the District jathedar and the Circle jathedars were the real pivots around which a political party revolved, these should be finalised by next month.There was also consensus that the SAD-BJP government should move with lightning speed to weed out corruption in all departments in which public dealing was involved. Accordingly it was resolved that all employees posted for long periods in departments like Power, Local Bodies, Police and Revenue would be changed fortwith. Clean and honest employees with a good track record will be chosen to fill these posts.
The SAD president also shared with the party leaders that a vicious and false campaign had been launched by various vested interests on the social media on the issue of sand and gravel even though central government policies which allowed operation of only 50 out of 500 sites were responsible for scarcity of sand and gravel and pushed up their prices. Mr Badal disclosed that steps had been taken to ensure easy availability of sand and that it would cost half of its present price soon. He also disclosed that farmers would be allowed to quarry sand from their fields for their personal need.
As far as the issue of drugs was concerned, senior leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal congratulated the SAD president for his dogged fight against drugs and his steely decision to finish sale of drugs in Punjab within six months. But he also felt that the party suffered because false and malicious charges had been levelled against the senior party leadership which could not be defended adequately. He said the party suffered on this issue as well on the issue of sand and gravel even though the majority of people in the sand business were Congressmen.There was enthusiasm in the party rank and file during the three day review exercise with leaders openly saying they were feeling energised by the manner in which Mr Sukhbir Badal listened to them and made instant on the spot decisions wherever needed. The SAD president also announced that the SAD was united as a rock and that it had the capacity and the will to take corrective action wherever needed to achieve “Target 2017”.The senior leadership present today included the three member committee formed to analyse the poll result including Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Jathedar Tota Singh and Maheshinder Singh Grewal besides senior leader Balwinder Singh Bhundur besides the entire leadership from the districts of Faridkot, Moga, Muktsar, Bathinda and Mansa.