Amrinder uses Vision 2025 card to presuade voters of Amritsar

Congress Lok Sabha candidate and former Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh accompanied by his wife Parneet Kaur and several party leaders, filed his papers before Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat in the District Court complex on Friday.

Singh kick-started his campaign in Amritsar constituency on Thursday morning. An enthused Singh began his day with an interaction with the media at 33 Court Road before he headed to ST Francis school to begin his campaign. Starting his campaign from St Francis School (Wagah to Cantt Road) Singh met a gathering of Christians, he then moved to Village Khasa on Attari road to meet party workers and Ramanjit Sikki, the constituency in-charge. He then moved to DCC Rural office, village Maahal, Sunil Dutti’s office to meet party workers.

Amritsar is one f the crucial 13 Lok Sabha seats that Punjab has to offer. ‘There are two rural and five urban seats here and I know the city very well. I have done village to village and door to door campaign during the by elections. The people here know me well and give me a lot of affection,’ stated Singh.

Singh came down heavily on BJP leader Arun Jaitley saying there was a clear disconnect he had with issues in the city being an ‘outsider’. Singh questioned Jaitley stalling parliament, he said ‘the whole country is angry and ashamed of the way the opposition under crores and crores of rupees were wasted as they held parliament to ransom.’

Jaitley in his blog had raised the drug trafficking issue being a huge menace in Punjab. Singh held Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) responsible for promoting drugs in the state. Jaitley is being backed by SAD during these elections. In fact their support coupled with Modi wave might just help him sail through smoothly.

‘Drug trafficking is he worst thing in Punjab. It is these people (SAD) who are doing all this. Punjab is reeling under this problem. Every one of these drug smugglers is patronised by the Akali Dal. Very stringent laws are required to made in parliament to tackle this issue and they then need to be implemented,’ said Singh.

Speaking to Millennium Post, Singh talked about his vision for Amritsar, ‘While I was the chief minister we spent Rs 1,300 crore but the former government has not even spent Rs100 crore on development. We conceptualised a document - Vision 2025 (city development plan for the city)- keeping in mind varied aspects of the city. These people didn’t even open this.'

‘I would like to ask Jaitley why has your MP left? Navjot Singh Sidhu was a popular MP and people liked him. He left because he kept asking for money for development of the city. Then they gave him a cheque of some hundred crores which was given to the municipality and I presume it was used to clear off the debts,’ said Singh.