A day ahead of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s Lok Milni at Gandhi Chowk here on Thursday, farmers under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Doaba) threatened to block all roads leading to the venue if their demand for payment of pending sugarcane dues amounting to Rs 28 crore is not addressed.
BKU (Doaba) president Manjit Singh Rai went live on his Facebook page on Wednesday, saying that minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian had promised them that their pending dues from Phagwara sugar mill would be paid by April 30, 2024, but there has been no headway. He said, “We will not only boycott his Lok Milni, but also block his passage from all routes, if he does not discuss the issue with us ahead of his event".
The threat has put the police and intelligence teams on alert for ensuring that the CM gets a clear passage to the venue tomorrow evening.
Likewise, even Shiromani Akali Dal leaders urged CM Mann to fulfil his party’s long-pending promise of granting the district status to Phagwara, ahead of his proposed visit to the city.
SAD Phagwara Urban constituency in-charge and core committee member of the party’s Industry and Trade Wing Ranjit Singh Khurana said the CM had repeatedly visited Phagwara and assured residents that the city would be upgraded to a district but no concrete step had been taken so far.
Khurana claimed that during the Chief Minister’s recent visit to Phagwara, he had said the demand for district status had only recently come to his notice, despite it being raised repeatedly during elections. He added that the Chief Minister still had an opportunity to announce district status for the city and warned that voters would respond in the next Assembly elections if the demand continued to be ignored.
The Akali leader further alleged that neither the previous Congress government, nor the present AAP government had taken concrete steps towards making Phagwara a district. He assured the residents that if the SAD forms the next government in Punjab, party president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal would give priority to completing the process of granting the district status to Phagwara.
Meanwhile, SAD Phagwara Rural constituency in-charge Rajinder Singh Chandi also criticised the state government, alleging that several development projects in the region remained incomplete. He said the construction of the sports stadium in Phagwara was still pending, while the Civil Hospital required urgent attention. He also highlighted recurring waterlogging in major city markets during the rainy season and expressed concern over the deteriorating condition of court complex buildings and the lack of proper public toilet facilities.
Since this is the first visit of the CM since the recent appointment of Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal as the halqa in-charge of Phagwara, massive preparations are underway. SSP, Kapurthala, Gaurav Toora, Additional Deputy Commissioner Randeep Singh Heer and others reviewed the preparations at the venue.
Mayor Rampal Uppal and Phagwara Improvement Trust Chairman Jarnail Nangal are expected to attend the event.
