“The people of Punjab will not forget the Congress for the sins it had committed in 1984 by attacking holiest Sri Darbar Sahib with tanks and then indulging in massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other states. It is anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab party not in any way concerned with development of the state rather has only one objective of looting Punjab and its resources.”He was addressing the gathering here today on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the development projects costing Rs. 25 crore regarding strengthening of Patiala-Guhla Cheeka road, lining of Kauli and Rajpura distributaries besides construction of a retaining wall (check dam) at Mehmoodpur and Hadhana villages for bringing up water level to ensure better irrigational use of water of Ghaggar river.Attacking Congress party S. Badal said Congress never did justice to Punjab on any issue especially concerning SYL canal and other important issues of Punjab. He also said that PPCC president Captain Amarinder Singh never cared to venture out of his royal palace to know the condition of the people of Sanaur region then how can he be expected to devote time to the entire state?
The Deputy Chief Minister further said Captain Amarinder Singh owes an explanation to the people of Punjab regarding his foreign bank accounts if he has any concern left in him for the sake of probity.Taking on AAP, Deputy CM said this party also stands exposed before the people of the state with its changing stands on SYL issue and its Convener Kejriwal is still tight-lipped on the sharing of river waters of Punjab. Elaborating, Mr Badal said AAP went back on its word of not forming any alliance by teaming up with the Bains brothers who have many cases going on against them. Divulging more, he said AAP is a bunch of worthless fellows who don’t have any regard for the religious sentiments of any community and its leader Arvind Kejriwal cannot tell a difference between the two crops then how come he harbours dream to rule Punjab which is predominantly an agrarian state.Describing SAD-BJP as the farmer friendly government, Mr. Badal said keeping in view the interests of farming community of the state in mind, the Punjab government has de-notified the SYL land and returned it to the farmers. He re-iterated that not even a single drop of Punjab’s river waters would be allowed to go outside the state.
Coming to the development plank, the Deputy Chief Minister said the SAD-BJP government made Punjab surplus in power, provided free power to the farmers, free power worth 200 units to SC/BC families, excellent 4 and 6 laned road infrastructure, waiving of tubewell bills worth Rs. 6000 crore annually, sanctioned 15 lakh tube well connections to farmers, constructed focal points and mandi’s in villages to enable farmers to sell produce, health insurance for farmers and traders, free medicine and lab testing centers, interest free loans to the farmers, 1 lakh jobs and preservation of cultural heritage in the form of memorials of all religions.He also disclosed that the 200 skill centers have been made operational in the state which would train one lakh youth per year and in next six months a skill college would be opened after every 10 villages apart from distributing gas connections and free chulhas to poor families.Touching Sanaur centric issues, Mr. Badal promised sub-tehsil status for Sanaur with sub-division status for Dudhan Sadhan and a developmental grant of Rs. 2 crore for Sanaur constituency.Among others present on the occasion included MP Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, Ex-Minister Surjit Singh Kohli, MLA Harpreet Kaur Mukhmailpur, SAD halqa incharge and candidate from Sanaur assembly constituency Harinder Pal Singh Chandumajra, additional advocate general Simranjit Singh Chandumajra, District SAD (Rural) President Randhir Singh Rakhra, District BJP President Narinder Nagpal, Chairman Market Committee Patiala Nardev Singh Aakri, DC Ramvir Singh , SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan and others.