Making a frontal attack on the political leaders who were befooling people with sole agenda of opportunism and vested interests just to nurture their own ambitions, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today appealed the people to beware of their nefarious designs. He impressed upon them to elect the political representatives with utmost caution, wisdom and rationale, who were ever loyal, committed and sincere for the development of their assembly constituencies and welfare of its people.Addressing the general public in different villages during the second leg of Sangat Darshan program in Dhuri Assembly constituency, the Chief Minister cautioned the people not to exercise their franchise just swayed by the emotions without any solid base of reasoning. Such decisions not only retarded the pace of development works but also pushed the entire region in the state of utter backwardness. He reminded the people of this region for taking a similar decision during last Lok Sabha elections which pushed the area by 20 years back.
He impressed upon the people to express their solidarity with only those time tested leaders who ensured development and welfare of the people rather electing the opportunists who deserted them mid-way. He however said only those leaders who were committed for the overall development of the region and the prosperity of the people should be elected so that the pace of development could not be hampered. He further said that the people were immensely benefited with the logical decisions but have to pay heavy price for the irrational decisions just taken in the wake of spur of the moment without analyzing the positives and negatives.Highlighting the importance of Sangat Darshan program, Mr. Badal said that this was an effective platform to resolve the issues and grievances of the people through their participation. The Chief Minister urged the farmers to come out from the rut of traditional farming and adopt crop diversification to get far more remunerative prices. He also motivated them to supplement their income by taking up fish farming and dairying.
Talking to the media persons at village Katron, the Chief Minister said the state government has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy for the eradication of cancer. All out efforts were being made to ensure the best treatment and diagnostic facilities to the patients inflicted with cancer adding he said cancer care centers with the latest medical equipment and infrastructure have been set up at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda and Sangrur. He said that the work on the upcoming PGI Satellite Centre at Ghabda (Sangrur) was being executed on war footing and this state-of-the-art Centre would prove to be a boon for the patients in the Malwa belt. Answering another query regarding the supply of drugs in the state, Mr. Badal categorically said that above 80 percent of drugs were being smuggled from Afganistan while sizeable chunk of drugs and Psychotropic substances like opium, poppy husk were peddled from Rajasthan, Kashmir and even Pakistan. He added neither there was any drugs manufacturing factory nor these were produced in the state rather Punjab has made heavy seizures of these drugs. Mr. Badal advocated that the neighboring states should completely ban the sale of these drugs and the International borders should also be sealed. He said Punjab has already waged a battle against the drugs and it would continue till this menace was completely vanished.
Asked to comment on the attacks on Punjabi farmers in Gujarat, the Chief Minister said that he has already sought the entire information in this regard and effective steps would be taken only after this.On the occasion, the Chief Minister also announced that construction of ultra-modern Bus Stand would be started soon.The Chief Minister held Sangat Darshan programs at village Kheru, Daulatput, Mallu Mazra, Bamal, Ghanaur Khurd, Ghanaur Kalan, Katron, Rurgarh, Ispur, Farwahi, Kaleran, Changli and Jahangir and disbursed grants for the various development works. The Chief Minister was accompanied by the MLA Mr. iqbal Singh Jhunda, Special Principal Secretary to CM Mr. KJS Cheema, Deputy Commissioner Mr. Arshdeep Singh Thind, DIG Patiala Range Mr. Shiv Kumar Verma, SSP Sangrur Mr. Mandeep Singh Sidhu besides senior civil and police officers of district administration were also present during the Sangat Darshan.