Most of main candidates fail to turn up for PAC interactive event

Environmental issues seemed to be not on the priority list of candidates in fray for the upcoming Ludhiana West bypoll. Most of the main candidates failed to turn up for an interactive event, ‘Saade Mudde Tuhada Stand’, organised by the Public Action Committee (PAC) here on Sunday, which had raised several issues, mostly concerning environment.

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Barring SAD candidate Parupkar Singh Ghuman and SAD (A) candidate Navneet Gopi, all others from the Congress, AAP and BJP preferred to stay away from the event. The BJP, however, sent its representative Gurdeep Singh Gosha to the event.

The major issues on which the candidates had to speak included the state government’s proposal to acquire 24,000 acres of land, effluents being discharged into the Buddha Nullah, dangerous liquor factory in Zeera, new paper factory near Chamkaur Sahib, police action against PAU staff and students, grabbing of land in schools and colleges, encroachments on green belts, acquiring of land in Mattewara, etc.

On being asked about issues, the SAD candidate said if he was chosen, he would be committed to resolve all these issues. Similar views were echoed by the BJP representative and the SAD A candidate.

“The candidates from AAP and the Congress should have been here to listen to public grievances but they preferred to maintain a distance from PAC members and activists, who had come from Mattewara, Chamkaur Sahib, etc, knowing that they would be grilled on the issues. The government was hand in glove with defaulters in many cases,” said one of the members of the PAC, Kuldeep Khaira.

Other activists of the PAC, Jaskirat Singh, Amandeep Singh Bains and Kapil Arora, however, said the candidates shied away from facing real issues and they did not have the courage to face environment activists.

“They claim to work for the environment but actually the subject is too small for them to discuss,” they said.