 "Peace, development to be SAD-BJP's main poll agenda: Parkash Singh Badal")
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday said peace, communal harmony and development will be the main agenda of the SAD-BJP alliance in the assembly polls to be held next year.
Badal claimed that besides strengthening the bond of brotherhood and amity in the state, the alliance government has ensured all-round development of Punjab in last decade.
Addressing the public gatherings during Sangat Darshan in village Jhuneer, Kot Dharmu, Nangal Kalan, Moosan and others, the Chief Minister said that peace and communal harmony were the catalyst of development in the state due to which the state government has accorded top priority in preserving and strengthening these ethos.
The Chief Minister, while listing the major initiatives taken by the state government, claimed the SAD-BJP alliance government has supplied free power to the farmers of the state at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore in last 10-years to bail them out from agrarian crisis.
He further said Punjab was the only state in the country to provide Atta-Dal scheme to the weaker sections adding that it was also the only state to ensure free treatment for fatal diseases like Cancer and Hepatitis C.
Badal said the state government has started first of its kind scheme to provide interest free crop loans worth Rs 50,000 to farmers.
He further said in another historic decision it has been decided that all the farmers would be provided a health insurance cover of Rs 50,000 and an insurance of Rs 5 lakh in case of accidental death or incapacitation of head of family.
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The Chief Minister further said an advanced cancer treatment centre has been set up at Bathinda to impart quality cancer treatment to people at par with Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.
Badal alleged the Congress party was the "perpetrator" of a "deep rooted conspiracy" to deprive the state of its waters by constructing the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.
Badal alleged that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was following in the footsteps of Congress to deprive the state of its river waters.
Later, at Kot Dharmu, the Chief Minister said that issue of regularisation of services of contractual employees was under the active consideration of the state government.
He said that a Cabinet Sub Committee under Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was looking into the matter.