Malout residents tweet PM over poor civic amenities

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Malout, July 10

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming here to address a rally on Wednesday, a number of residents from Malout, Abohar and Muktsar made a complaint to Modi on his official twitter about the erratic power supply and poor civic amenities in these towns. Some residents have even sought time to meet him.

Ramesh Jain, a resident of Malout, tweeted, “Sir, you are visiting Malout. Acute shortage of power in Abohar villages since July 3. Please raise the matter.”

Similarly, advocate Rohit Dhuria tweeted, “Dear PM, your schedule is fixed for tomorrow in Malout. I am a resident of a nearby town. Sir, please if you could give me 15 minutes in Malout to express my ideas for vision 2019. I’ll be grateful. Thanks.”

A girl, Tanya Bansal, tweeted, “With due respect, sir, I have come to know that you are coming to Malout (Punjab). And I’m a citizen of Sri Muktsar Sahib. On behalf of all the people of my city, I just want to inform you about the conditions of our town.”

A government employee, Ritesh, tweeted, “Sir, during your visit to Malout (Punjab), we all FCI employees want you to visit our FCI godown, which is the largest centre of this area — 2 lakh MT. We are expecting that you would hoist a 40-ft flag. We all are waiting for you in our food storage depot, which is related to farmers.”

Another twitter user Pankaj Bishnoi tweeted, “Sir, on July 11, your visit here in Punjab (Malout), please mention the city Abohar, which is also ruled by a dynasty of Congress but not Gandhi family. It’s their team Jakhar dynasty. Did nothing for the city and last time lost. City is in worst condition.”

Notably, Modi’s helicopter will land at a helipad made at Chhapianwali village near here. Further, he will come in a cavalcade of vehicles to the rally venue at the local grain market.

Restrictions imposed

Owing to security reasons, the police have asked the wholesale vegetable sellers at the grain market to either shift their business till the rally to some other place or close it. There are nearly 40 shops in the wholesale vegetable market. Meanwhile, the wholesale vegetable market did not open on Tuesday, which affected the supply to some neighbouring towns as well. The vegetable market will remain closed on Wednesday as well.

Further, the old car dealers at the local car bazaar too have reportedly been told to keep their shops shut on Wednesday. Besides, the names of shop owners and their employees too have been noted down. All rehris and kiosks have been removed from the national highway and the road connecting Chhapianwali and the grain market here.

SAD leader Harpreet Singh, a former MLA from Malout, said, “Owing to security reasons, the national highway dividing Malout town in two parts will be closed for vehicular movement for 45 minutes twice during the PM’s visit. But some alternate route will be made by the administration so that commuters do not face any problem.”

Muktsar Deputy Commissioner Sumeet Jarangal said, “Just one tube of the highway will be closed for the safe passage of the Prime Minister. The other will remain open for normal traffic.”