Cong leaders on stone-laying spree

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 24

Seemingly entering into election mode post the victory of the party in the recent civic bodies poll, the Congress MP, MLAs and councillors have begun making huge announcements regarding starting various projects in the city.

It being the last year of the term of the present government, the leaders have begun holding foundation stone-laying or ground-breaking ceremonies to show to the people that they are bringing in some development works.

A slew of projects have been started in the region in the recent days, including construction of flyovers, development of parks, sewage treatment plants, upgradation of railway stations, setting up rooftop rainwater harvesting systems, LED streetlight system, digitisation of government libraries, all at a cost of crores of rupees.

As Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stones of some projects digitally from Chandigarh, the MLAs did attend the online event but then also went to the sites, organised gatherings, held foundation stone laying events and even got their pictures posted on social media.

“All this drama is being done to garner support of the masses ahead of the 2022 Assembly poll. We all know that these works will not get over within a span of less than a year. These will only cause inconvenience to us and hinder our day-to-day movement. Ideally, all such projects should have got started in the first year of the inception of the government,” said Surinder Setia, a resident of Chuggiti area where work for a new flyover has started.

Even the Opposition has been raking up the issue as former BJP MLA KD Bhandari said, “All the projects which the CM announced yesterday are actually being done from funds they have got from the Centre under the Smart City or AMRUT schemes. The ruling Congress in Punjab is taking completely undue publicity out of these funds. The Congress leaders have gone to the extent that they are laying two foundation stones for one road. These stunts won’t work.”