Amritsar– Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced the SAD-BSP alliance would develop the entire walled city on the pattern of the Heritage Walk to give a fillip to commerce and tourism activities once elected to power in 2022.
“Promoting tourism in Sri Amritsar Sahib will be our priority. We will not only focus on beautifying the walled city to make it an even bigger attraction but will also revive all infrastructure projects which are lying incomplete during Congress rule”, the SAD President while talking to newsmen here after paying obeisance at Sri Harmandir Sahib, Pracheen Shivalya temple and Gurdwara Atari Sahib (Sultanwind). He also held interactions with representatives of medical associations and received a rousing welcome by goldsmith association during his visit to Tahli wala bazar besides addressing public gatherings in different areas of Amritsar South and North Assembly segments. He was accompanied by senior leaders including Anil joshi, Gurpartap Tikka and Talbir Gill.
Sukhbir Singh Badal said the erstwhile SAD led government had made Amritsar a major tourist destination by developing the Heritage Walk besides creating other tourist magnets like Apna Pind and the Partition Museum. “I am pained to see that these projects are not getting the attention they deserve in the present regime. It is painful to see how the Heritage Walk is being allowed to go to seed. The holy city had fallen victim to intra-party power games of the Congress, with no major development project being taken up in Amritsar in the last nearly five years”.
Badal also highlighted how the present power crisis was man made and that the Congress government was directly responsible for it. He said neither the chief minister nor the power minister thought it fit to take up the issue of expediting power supply with the central government. “Even the private thermal plants were not held to account by making it mandatory for them to keep a thirty day surplus with them at all times”. He said Punjabis would have to pay for this willful negligence with generation being down by fifty per cent and large parts of the State being in darkness. “Punjabis will also pay a heavy financial price because the State was now purchasing power at Rs 11.60 per unit”. He said those who had objected to the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) done by the previous SAD government, should now tell the people of Punjab the reason behind this failure. “Punjabis across all sectors, including industry, are facing more than six hour power cuts, which has virtually paralysed the State”.
SAD(Badal) president listened to the grievance of city residents and vowed to redress each and every one of them once the next SAD-BSP government is formed in the State, restore development and ensure peace and communal harmony in the State.
Responding to a media query regarding Navjot Sidhu announcing to sit on a silent protest, the SAD President asked Sidhu to first clear his current status in the party. Terming him a drama master, Mr Badal said he would like to appeal to Sidhu to continue this silent protest for 4 months, if he really wished to do something good for the state. “It shouldn’t be like his previous one at Lakhimpur Kheri where he went on hunger strike post dinner and broke it even before breakfast time”.
