Khanna: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal anchored his party’s “Punjab Bachao” campaign on Tuesday with a sweeping set of populist pledges, promising to grant district status to both Khanna and Jagraon if returned to power.Addressing a rally alongside party leader Yadwinder Singh Yadu, Sukhbir framed the administrative upgrade as a necessary engine for economic growth. “I am committed to honoring the demand of the people who want their towns turned into districts to boost their economies and ensure easy redressal of grievances,” he stated. He took aim at the current administration’s handling of the state’s vital farming sector, pledging to modernise the Khanna grain market—Asia’s largest—and restore commission rates for wheat and paddy to 2.5%, reversing a recent cap of 1.5%.The SAD leader further detailed a vision for industrial modernisation, including IT expansion (bringing the information technology industry to Punjab “in a big way), entrepreneurial support (offering ₹10 lakh interest-free loans to youth to encourage startups), and education quotas (reserving 50% of seats in medical and engineering colleges for meritorious school students, with free professional education).Taking a hardline stance on crime, Badal proposed new legislation to deny bail to gangsters and drug lords and seize their entire property holdings. He also addressed the environmental “scourge of cancer” in the Malwa belt, promising a total ban on industrial and sewerage effluent entering the Sutlej and Beas rivers. “I will not let one drop of effluent enter these rivers,” he asserted.The SAD president condemned chief minister Bhagwant Mann for allegedly wasting ₹4,400 crore on self-promotional advertising while farmers await crop damage compensation. He characterized the government’s plan to provide ₹1,000 monthly to women as a “vote-purchasing attempt” funded by an unsustainable ₹52,000 crore loan.
