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Punjab polls: Eye on rural votes, BJP and allies release 11-point sankalp document
A report in PTI said the BJP and its allies also promised cash rewards for medal winners in international and national games on the lines of those given out in Haryana.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its allies the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), on Tuesday released a ‘sankalp’ (commitments) document days ahead of the upcoming Assembly election.
Among other things, the document lists down 11 commitments, including a budget of ₹5,000 crore for sustainable agriculture and organic farming, free rainwater harvesting units to check depleting water table and promotion of allied agriculture sectors are some of the promises.
A report in PTI said the BJP and its allies also promised cash rewards for medal winners in international and national games on the lines of those given out in Haryana.
The document was released by the BJP's Punjab election in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, party leaders – Harjit Singh Grewal and Subhash Sharma – and SAD (Sanyukt) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
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Former chief minister Amarinder Singh, whose Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) is one of the allies, skipped the event.
The document further promised to promote allied agriculture sectors, including dairy farming, poultry farming, apiculture, setting up of new cold storages and subsidy and loans to women belonging to backward classes, scheduled castes and economically weaker sections for venturing into dairy, poultry and beekeeping sectors.
Besides, there were pledges for promotion of rural entrepreneurship and quality education in rural areas with high-quality smart schools. Students have been promised free bus services for going to educational institutions.
The BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) alliance also said playgrounds will be built at the village level along with world-class facilities for grooming international-level hockey players and Kabaddi tournaments in rural areas.
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According to the document, new projects will be launched under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana, while the completion of pending irrigation projects will be expedited.
Punjab will go to polls on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
The Congress is currently in power in Punjab under the leadership of Charanjit Singh Channi who took after Singh quit from the post and the party following a bitter tussle with Navjot Singh Sidhu.
In the 2017 polls, the Congress won 77 seats in the 117-member Assembly and ousted the ruling Akali Dal-BJP government that was in power for 10 years.
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