With the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in power, the day is not far when sand and gravel will be sold in packets in Punjab, Sunil Jakhar, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the state, has said.
The opposition leader was addressing prominent people at Partap Road in Moga on
Wednesday to muster support for party candidate Vijay Sathi. Sathi's brother, Ashok, also came into the campaign. Party workers gave away small packets of sand and gravel to Jakhar to highlight the rising cost of construction material in the state.
"Because the ruling Badal family and revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia had monopolised the business of mining, sand had become a scarce commodity, affecting all the development work in the state," said Jakhar. "The bankrupt state is now imposing punitive taxes on people and surviving on central grants, while its leaders cry wolf that Punjab is being discriminated against."
Referring to Joginder Pal Jain who quit the Congress to become the Akali candidate, Jakhar appealed to people to vote against turncoats. He said Vijay Sathi was a candidate of clean image.
Party candidate Vijay Sathi; his brother, Ashok Sathi; state Mahila Congress president Dr Malti Thapar; and party leaders Darshan Singh Brar, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Jagdarshan Kaur, Pandit Sham Lal, Ravi Pandit, Arun Shukla, Pawan Dewan, Atma Singh, GP Sood, Jaswinder Singh, Raju Bajaj, Naresh Bajaj, and Ram Kumar were present.