Faridkot loses its California dream to Bathinda

The slogan that SAD president Sukhbir Badal gave to the people of this constituency during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections...

The slogan that SAD president Sukhbir Badal gave to the people of this constituency during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections has become a joke for the residents here. Sukhbir had promised to change this dusty,backward constituency into Punjabs California,but three terms later,residents of the constituency the largest in Punjab know that their Californian dream has now shifted to Bathinda.

After taking over as the CM,Parkash Singh Badal had promised a grant of Rs 21 lakh,but that is yet to reach here, says local advocate Avtar Singh Gondara. Adds another resident Jagjit Singh: We have not seen any development,despite the fact that Badals hometown Lambi was part of this constituency before delimitation. Now,Lambi has been included in Bathinda and hence,the Badals have shifted their focus on that constituency.

SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal contested his first Lok Sabha elections in 1977 from here. Faridkot has also seen Sukhbir sit in the Lok Sabha for three terms 1996,1998,2004. The partys candidate for this election,Paramjit Kaur Gulshan,has promised development to the people here,yet again.

Sukhbir had promised an airport,which was never in the pipeline. The lone sugar mill here has been sitting idle since 2000. It has not paid salaries to its employees for the past 14 months and runs into losses worth Rs 47 crore. The only medical university of Punjab,Baba Farid University for Health Sciences,was established here in 1998,but the foundation stone for the universitys building was laid only last year. The university first operated from a rest-house owned by the state tourism department and is now running from a ward of a local medical college and hospital.

Add to this the fact that drinking water here has been polluted by the industries in Ludhiana. Last year,water samples collected by the Punjab State Pollution Control Board were declared unfit for drinking. Sukhbir had promised RO system to the people here. While people of this area suffer from hepatitis C and cancer,the system that was promised is nowhere in sight.