BHADAUR (BARNALA), January 27: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today promised that the Congress government in the state will ensure primary education and healthcare for all the people particularly those who cannot afford it. He revealed that a recent study conducted by the Punjabi University Patiala had found that only five per cent of the students opting for higher studies were from the government schools.
Addressing public rallies in support of Mohammad Sidique in Bhaduar, Kewal Dhillon at Barnala and Aman Arora in Sunam today, he pointed out, still a large chunk of population could not afford to send their children to public schools and they were dependent on the government schools only. He said, hence it was very important to ensure that the standard of education in the government schools is improved and brought at a par with that of the public schools so that those who cannot afford hefty fee can also get good education.
Similarly, he pointed out, there was no proper medical care available for the poor. Moreover, in the Malwa region cancer had spread in an alarming proportion and the Akali-BJP government had not done anything for the problem. He said, people had to take a train to Bikaner called, ‘Cancer Express’ for treatment. He promised to set up super-specialty three cancer hospitals in Malwa region.
The former Chief Minister questioned the development claims of the Akali-BJP government and asked it to show where it is. He pointed out, the bullet train and the skyscrapers shown in the advertisements were actually from Japan and Manhattan in the US. He told people to ask the Akalis to show where these trains were running and where these skyscrapers were located.
Ridiculing the claims of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal that that Punjab will be power surplus by 2014, he pointed out, he had made similar promises in 2007 and said that the state would be power surplus by 2010 and there were still power cuts as many as three days in a week.
Promising round the clock power, he said, it was not a big deal as the state could always purchase power from other power-surplus states as he had done during 2002 to 2007. He pointed out, there were no power cuts during his period as he had bought power from other states. He said, even the agriculture sector got regular power supply for eight hours a day.
Lashing out at Akalis for betraying and letting down farmers, he said, he had motivated the Reliance Industries to start field to fork programme which would increase the farmers’ income four times. “Since the programme was getting popular among the farmers the Akalis feared that the farmers will get inclined towards Congress and they abandoned it all together”, he disclosed while promising that he will again bring back the Reliance and other companies to ensure that the agriculture becomes more ruminative.
