Sukhbir Badal announces 15-point SAD manifesto

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 23

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal formally announced the party’s 15-point manifesto assuring freebies for the electorate here on Monday.

Sukhbir, who was here to address a rally in favour of former MLA and party candidate Didar Singh Bhatti at old grain market, said each street of every village in the state would be equipped with solar lights besides extending the width of the link roads from 9 feet to 18 feet in the next five years.

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He said a government owned ‘gaushala’ (cattle shed) for stray animals would be constructed in each assembly segment besides setting up 2,500 skill development centres – one each in a cluster of five villages.

He said the youths after being trained at these centres would be provided loans up to Rs 10 lakh by the Punjab State Cooperative Bank for opening their own ventures.

The Deputy Chief Minister also said the SAD-BJP government would provide desi ghee and sugar to blue card holders at the rate of Rs 25 and Rs 10, respectively under the flagship Atta-Dal scheme.

To woo the economically-weaker sections in the general category, Sukhbir announced that free electricity would be provided as had been done in the cases of schedules castes and backward classes.

He said old-age and widow monthly pension would be increased to Rs 2,000 from the current Rs 500, Shagun scheme to Rs 51,000 from Rs 15,000, Bhagat Puran Singh Medical Insurance scheme to Rs 1 lakh from the present Rs 50,000.

He said houses would be constructed for five lakh people living in dilapidated homes with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

Regarding farmers, he said, they would get Rs 100 bonus over and above the MSP, Rs 2 lakh annual loan without interest for purchase of agriculture inputs to those, who had less than five acres, besides loans of poor farmers would be waived off.

The SAD president said media hype was being created that the SAD-BJP was having triangular contest with arch-rival Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.

He said there was a direct fight between his party and the Congress in the Majha and Doaba regions while the AAP was showing its presence in 21 assembly segments in Malwa region.

He claimed that his party would win 85 seats in the state as the Congress was gripped with infighting.