Punjab polls: Cong promises development in Malwa region

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President and former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, on Wednesday promised that once Congress comes to power in Punjab it would set up three cancer hospitals, six medical colleges and six drug de-addiction centres in the Malwa region.

Singh reiterated that the Congress would provide highly subsidized aata-daal to the poor and continue with the free power to the agriculture sector.

Addressing a public meeting at Faridkot in the Malwa heartland, Amarinder Singh asked the people to draw their own comparisons between the present five year rule of the Akali-BJP government and the previous Congress government asserting it was his government which delivered.

Malwa region, once the traditional support base of the Akali Dal, had shifted towards the Congress in the 2007 elections.

Lashing out at the Akali-BJP government for its all round failure, he asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to spell out the development projects to their credit and said the bullet trains shown in the newspapers advertisements were those from Japan and the skyscrapers were from Manhattan in the United States.

He said the father-son duo were spreading lies and telling people that when Congress comes to power it would stop aata-daal scheme and free power to farmers. He said the aata-daal scheme would be improved and further subsidy will be provided to the poor.

The former Chief Minister said, the Akali-BJP government had pushed the state to bankruptcy and the treasuries had virtually been locked since there was no money available.