If SAD-BSP is voted to power, Amritsar walled city will be developed on heritage walk pattern: Badal

The SAD-BSP alliance will develop the entire walled city of Amritsar on the lines of a heritage walk to give a fillip to tourism activities if it is voted to power in 2022, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Monday.Promoting tourism in Sri Amritsar Sahib will be our priority.

The SAD-BSP alliance will develop the entire walled city of Amritsar on the lines of a heritage walk to give a fillip to tourism activities if it is voted to power in 2022, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Monday.

''Promoting tourism in Sri Amritsar Sahib will be our priority. We will not only focus on beautifying the walled city to make it an even bigger attraction, but will also revive all infrastructure projects which are lying incomplete,'' the SAD president said after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, Pracheen Shivalya temple and the Gurdwara Atari Sahib (Sultanwind).

He also interacted with representatives of medical associations and visited the Tahli Wala Bazaar, besides addressing public gatherings in Amritsar South and North assembly segments.

He was accompanied by senior leaders, including Anil joshi, Gurpartap Tikka and Talbir Gill.

Badal said the erstwhile SAD-led government had made Amritsar a major tourist destination by developing the heritage walk, besides creating other tourist magnets like 'Apna Pind' and the Partition Museum.

''I am pained to see that these projects are not getting the attention they deserve. It is painful to see how the Heritage Walk is being allowed to go to seed. The holy city has fallen victim to intra-party power games of the Congress, with no major development project being taken up in Amritsar in the last nearly five years,'' he said.

Badal said the present power crisis was “man-made” and that the Congress government was directly responsible for it.

Neither the chief minister nor the power minister thought it fit to take up the issue of expediting power supply with the central government, he alleged.

''Even the private thermal plants were not held to account by making it mandatory for them to keep a 30-day surplus at all times,'' he said.

Badal said Punjabis would have to pay for this “willful negligence” with power generation down by 50 per cent and large parts of the state being in darkness.

''Punjabis will also pay a heavy financial price because the state was now purchasing power at Rs 11.60 per unit,'' he said.

He said those who had objected to the power purchase agreements (PPAs) done by the previous SAD government should now tell the people of Punjab the reason behind this “failure”.

''Punjabis across all sectors, including industry, are facing more than six-hour power cuts, which has virtually paralysed the state,'' Badal added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)