Support SAD to restart all social welfare schemes – Harsimrat K Badal

Maur, May 23 (RNI) – Former union minister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today appealed to Punjabis to support the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to restart all social welfare benefits which had been stopped or curtailed by successive Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments.
She also emphasized the need to support the SAD which had always put Punjab first instead of national parties which had not even mentioned Punjab in their election manifestos.
The Bathinda MP also castigated attempts to frighten off voters by talking about their ‘mangalsutras’ being snatched from them or by calling farmers extremists. “This discourse is not good for a healthy democracy”, she added.
Mrs Harsimrat Badal, who addressed a number of village level meetings in this assembly segment, also expressed shock at how the present AAP regime had left farmers and the poor to their fate. She said even though Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian was from the area, he had done nothing to compensate farmers for crop damages due to hail storms or take up the case of those whose milch animals died in thousands during a disease outbreak. She said the AAP government was yet to compensate farmers for losses to their cotton crop due to whitefly attack.
Mrs Badal also accused the AAP government of giving a fillip to drug trafficking by allowing its legislators to obstruct action against the drug mafia. “The drug menace is on the increase because these legislators are even taking monthlies from the smugglers”, she added.
Asserting that both the Congress and AAP were again trying to fool Punjabis with false promises, Mrs Badal said “remember both parties have failed to implement any of the promises made by them earlier. The Congress promised to waive off farmer loans and give an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month. AAP promised to give all women Rs 1,000 per month but has not given a single paisa since the last more than two years”.
Appealing to the people to vote for the SAD to restart all social welfare benefits which had been stopped or curtailed, Mrs Badal said “the SAD is committed to restarting all social welfare schemes initiated by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal which have been stopped by the Congress and AAP governments”. She said once the SAD government came into being in the State it would restart the shagun scheme, SC scholarship scheme and the free cycles to girls’ scheme. “We will also ensure lakhs of people who have been taken out of the ambit of the atta-dal scheme and the old age pension scheme, become a part of these schemes again”.
Senior leader Janmeja Singh Sekhon accompanied the Bathinda MP during the election campaign. 

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