Development on Samana MLA''s mind

Harinder Singh Khaira

Patiala, April 26

After defeating Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) stalwart leader and former Cabinet Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra in the run-up to the Assembly poll from Samana, Rajinder Singh has taken over the charge to boost the development of his constituency. Rajinder Singh, who fought the elections for the first time, proved his mettle as he took on the former minister with the unexpected margin of 9,849 votes. Following the footsteps of his father senior Congress leader Lal Singh, Rajinder has always worked for the welfare of common people.

The ruling party MLA is committed to providing basic necessities to the constituency, and development of both health and education sectors top his agenda.

Rajinder had taken up the issue of lack of basic facilities at Samana Civil Hospital, including acute shortage of specialist doctors and other staff. Recently, Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra visited the hospital and assured his full support to fulfill all requirements soon. Rajinder has demanded the facility of blood bank for the hospital and also urged the minister to provide appropriate number of doctors and paramedical staff.

Meanwhile, Rajinder has also shown keen interest in the education sector and promised a government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) soon in Samana city. The main motive behind setting up an ITI is to provide quality-education in various professional courses to youths of the area which will make them eligible for jobs in the industry as skilled workers.

As many as 40 villages of Samana constituency witnessed heavy loss of wheat crop due to the recent hailstorms. Various other crops on hundreds of acres got damaged. Rajinder took up the issue with the state government, which was followed by the orders of special 'girdawari' of the damage of the crops to compensate farmers. He personally visited the affected villages of the region immediately after the natural calamity to share the condolences with the victim farmers.

Rajinder has also prepared strategies for the overall development of the constituency. Rajinder said, "Due to anomalies of the previous government, it is very tough to put the state infrastructure on track in just one month. Within one year, we will bring the fiscal condition under control, and in the coming Budget, the Congress government will fulfill most of its promises made to the people of Punjab."

The Samana MLA said, "For Samana youth, I have planned world-class stadiums for various games to prevent them from using drugs. It will raise the performance of sportspersons of Punjab on national and international level and will also help to improve the health standards of the state."

Residentspeak

Though the former MLA Rakhra has also dispersed enough grants for the development projects in the constituency, he failed to keep a check on corruption, especially on the Panchayat level. Now with the change of the government, the new MLA should look into the embezzlement of grants during the previous regime. — Jaswinder Rana

Due to hailstorms, farmers of the region witnessed heavy losses as all crops got severely damaged. Though following the assurances of the MLA, the Revenue Department has done a special 'girdawari' to compensate the affected farmers, they have refused to note down the damage of cash crops. The government should refine its compensation policy as the agriculture sector is already going through a rough phase. — Rupinder Singh