AMRITSAR: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Navjot Singh Sidhu marked the last day of campaigning for the assembly elections on Sunday by holding a press conference at the Bhandari Bridge, the construction of which was initiated by him during his tenure as local bodies minister.
He also opened the structure for traffic. After addressing the media, Sidhu moved a barricade laid on the bridge to allow traffic to pass through what he described as one of his “dream projects”.
Earlier, talking to the media, Sidhu said about 10 years ago, he had a run in with the then CM, Parkash Singh Badal, over the construction of bridges and even sat on a hunger strike unto death at Bhandari Bridge. Alleging that Captain Amarinder Singh and Badal were two sides of the same coin, Sidhu said he had, as a minister, given Rs 170 crore for the construction of five bridges, but Amarinder stopped his development works. “These are not Sidhu’s work, but these are the works for the people,” he said. Taking credit for the construction of several such bridges, he said he got at least 12-15 such bridges built.
He also released a ‘manifesto’ for the Amritsar East constituency detailing his past work and future programmes. He said everybody in Punjab was looking for change, but “change is not necessarily progress, but if it improves life and moves towards development, everyone accepts it”.
He said if the mafia was eradicated from Punjab its income could be used for development and social works Without naming anyone, he said, “The proven mafia has come to defeat Sidhu and that mafia is getting a befitting reply, not once but every day, going towards them is a retrograde step, which means you are not going towards progress and development, but devastation. ”
