'I owe you, Jalalabad'

Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday returned to Jalalabad to thank voters for electing him to the state assembly. Re-election with a record margin had firmed his resolve to make Jalalabad as rich in infrastructure as capital Chandigarh, he said.

Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday returned to Jalalabad to thank voters for electing him to the state assembly.

Re-election with a record margin had firmed his resolve to make Jalalabad as rich in infrastructure as capital Chandigarh, he said. Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and he will ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clear a special industrial package for the border area of Punjab for long-term solution to its problem of unemployment.

Sukhbir agreed to build a hospital and a world-class kabaddi stadium in Jalalabad, besides a degree college at Arniwala Sheikh Subhan. "Every year, the state government will upgrade the civic infrastructure of 20 villages in the constituency," he said, adding that he would hold bi-monthly meetings with constituents.

He sought detailed report on the problem of water accumulation at Jalalabad. "In another two years, the area will have three four-lane highways (Ludhiana-Ferozepur, Bathinda-Chandigarh, and Amritsar-Zira)," he added.

Sher Singh Ghubaya, member of parliament; Prem Kumar Valacha, chairman of the district planning committee of Fazilka; and Akali leader Vardev Singh Mann were present.

Open Fazilka border with Pak: Sukhbir
Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked the union government to initiate concrete steps to re-open the Hussainiwala border and open the Sulemanki (Fazilka) border with Pakistan for trade and traffic.

Sukhbir said though Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had drawn a negative list of 1,209 items for trading with India, Punjabi traders had now found that they could trade only 137 items through the Wagah border. He demanded a liberalised visa regime for Indian and Pakistani traders.