Harsimrat fails to give insurance policies to women

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Lambi, August 31

Bathinda MP-cum-Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal didn’t keep her promise of gifting free personal insurance policies to Mann village women ahead of Rakhi. She had adopted the village under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) to transform it into a model village.

During her last visit to the village on August 8, Harsimrat announced she would personally hand over free insurance policies for 10 years to all women between the age of 18 and 70 on August 27. However, neither did she and nor did any administrative official turn up at the village to hand over the policies.

Teja Singh, Sarpanch, Mann village, said, “No one in the village has received the insurance policy. I fail to understand why Harsimrat didn’t visit the village.”

Some villagers seeking anonymity said the administration had even opened bank accounts for nearly 600 women in the village so they could get free personal insurance for 10 years.

“Harsimrat presented the same insurance policies to women in Bathinda and Mansa districts this week. But it is a mystery why she didn’t turn up at the village,” they said.

During Harsimrat’s last visit to the village, some unidentified miscreants had torn her hoarding. This village falls in Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s Lambi assembly segment and located next to Badal village.

The village had also witnessed poll violence during the Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti polls in 2013. Nearly 150 Congress men were booked by the Lambi police.