Former CM in no mood to put his feet up

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Lambi, May 28

In spite of temperature hovering around 45 degree Celsius, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal (89) toured his home constituency Lambi today.

He visited 18 families in four villages to express condolences at the death of their relatives.

He visited two houses at Lohara village, one at Warring Khera, five at Ghumiara and 10 at Vanwala village. Most of the houses he visited were of poor and Dalit families.

Badal said, “I am not doing any favour to these people. This is the duty of every elected representative to meet people of his area. I spend three hours every day to meet people, poor or rich. A politician sometimes is unable to attend weddings because of his busy schedule, but it is his duty to visit everyone in times of grief.”

He criticised Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for being unapproachable. “He doesn’t meet anyone.”

On Shiromani Akali Dal’s policy to target the Congress government, Badal said, “Everyone knows the Congress will not fulfil the promises announced in its election manifesto. But we are giving the government time to perform. When it fails to fulfil the promises, we will target them.”

The former Chief Minister sought the resignation of Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, whose cook Amit Bahadur bagged a Rs 26-crore sand mining contract.

“The minister should have resigned. The question is from where he got such a big amount. Even the rich don’t have such a big amount,” Badal added.