Chandigarh, March 3: When Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal took up the mike in the conference hall of a 5-star hotel in Chandigarh on the completion of nine years in office of the Akali Dal led government on March 2 afternoon to present the report card and thereby remove all the misconceptions and in the process change total perception of the people, he was there as a professional marketing executive and not just a politician resorting to rhetoric to sell the achievements. Sukhbir, during his hour long presentation, left no room for any searching questions from the incisive media persons.
For years, the opposition has been playing up the so called increasing debt burden and this was the major issue that was raked up by the erstwhile People’s Party of Punjab the remnants of which have now merged with the Congress. The issue was presented as some big crisis looming over the state that might affect even the coming generations. Sukhbir presented comparative facts and figures to hammer the point that several other states in the country, including neighbouring Haryana, has incurred much higher debt burden but these states have never earned the tag of being bankrupt. He quoted figures even from USA and Japan to reinforce his argument against Punjab being maligned by the opposition as debt stressed. But then more important is comparison with other states in the country.
Interestingly, Punjab is laying its first concrete road to Bathinda via Sunam and Mansa and the machinery has been imported from Germany. The output is construction of iron and concrete road at the rate of one km per four days. Strangely, the state government has never tried to project it as another milestone in road construction technology. High time that media persons from Chandigarh are taken to the sight to show them the pace and quality of work.
The target is to widen the entire highway network to four and six lane. Even major link road is to be widened to 33 feet. Punjab is going to emerge in the country with best road network within two years. It may be mentioned that Punjab earlier had the distinction of being the first state in the country to provide road access to all the villages. It is the infrastructure development that is basic to the progress of the state. The effort is to change the very face of Punjab.
Yet another important aspect that he took up in details was the so called drug problem thereby pointing out that the seizures in this state have been the highest as compared to other states in the country. Punjab is on the transit route and it can be rightly claimed that in case the police had not been that active, the amount that has been seized during the last few years would have caused havoc in the country.
While both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are depending upon election strategists, Sukhbir has evolved as a better marketing man and if possible, he should make such presentations in all the major cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda and Ferozepur as that would be the best campaigning to project government achievements. Political part is different.
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