Jaitley, Naidu on Amritsar visit today
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 13
The stage is set for the visit of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu tomorrow.
The ministers will announce and lay stones of several development and heritage projects for the holy city. Tight security arrangements are in place while a battery of PR Department officials has also reached here for the event.
Though rainy weather conditions might play a spoilsport, the administration has put up a waterproof “pandal” to ensure that the event is conducted smoothly.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Cabinet ministers and senior leaders of both SAD and the BJP will attend the event at Ranjit Avenue grounds. The administration is expecting a turnout of around 20,000.
It will be the first public meeting of Jaitley in Amritsar after he lost the Lok Sabha elections last year. Jaitley and Naidu will launch Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) for the holy city and hand over a cheque of Rs80 crore to the state government for the purpose.
They will also lay the foundation stone of four-laning of the NH-15 from Amritsar to Bathinda to Ganganagar. The first phase of the work includes four-laning of Amritsar-Tarn Taran-Harike road and Faridkot-Kotkapura-Bathinda stretch.
They will also inaugurate a drug rehabilitation centre. Spread over 2.23 acres of land, the 100-bed centre located near the Government Medical College has come up at a cost of Rs5.5 crore. The centre will also facilitate training of such youth in various vocational courses so as to bring them back into the mainstream.
Jaitley will also preside over the convocation ceremony of the historic Khalsa College tomorrow morning, besides laying the foundation stone of Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) School of Excellence.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal landed here for the event this evening and took stock of the preparations for the public rally. Education Minister Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema has already been camping in the city for the past few days to ensure that the event is a grand success.
At present, most of the heritage projects in the holy city are running behind the schedule. These include restoration work at historic Ram Bagh Gardens and Gobindgarh Fort, besides the work on Heritage Village. The work on the multi-crore bus rapid transport system has also breached its March 2015 deadline.
