CHANDIGARH: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged that Takht Damdama Sahib be linked with the other Takhts of the Sikh community and that the Rama Mandi – Talwandi Sabo rail link be completed to make this possible.
Urging the Railway minister to take up this connection in the forthcoming railway budget in parliament, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said though a survey had been done in 2014 to establish the Rama Mandi- Talwandi Sabo link, work on the same was still to be taken up.
Mrs Badal also called for connecting Nanakmatta Sahib in Uttarakhand, which was associated with the first Sikh Guru, with Punjab while asserting that a large number of Sikh pilgrims would be facilitated by this move. She also called for restarting of the Ferozepur Janata Express which had been running for fifty years but had been stopped during the Covid pandemic.
The MP also urged for stopping various trains at Rama Mandi including the Ajmer- Jaipur – Amritsar Express, Gorakhdham Express, Tripura Sundri Express, Ahmedabad – Vaishnoo Devi – Katra Express and the Ajmer –Rameshwaram Hamsafar Express.She also urged that the Bathinda – Delhi Superfast Express stop at Maur Mandi, the Chhindwara Express and Jammu – Ahmedabad Express at Goniana Mandi, the Jind- Ferozepur Express at Chandbhan, Kahangarh and Sadda Singh Wala in Mansa, the Jodhpur Bathinda Express at Sangat Mandi, the Farakka Express at Mansa and the Delhi – Sri Ganganagar Express at Baretta.
Mrs Badal also stressed on the need to shift the railway siding from Mansa City to Narendrapura. She said the railway siding was presently located in the middle of the city and frequent loading of grains, fertilizers and cement resulted in repeated traffic jams and even accidents. She also requested that an underpass be constructed at Pathrala village as the railway line had divided the village in two. She also raised concern that underpasses which had already been constructed in her constituency did not have any sheds on top of them leading to their flooding during the monsoon season. She said rainwater dumping pits should also be established in the underpasses.
In a separate development, while speaking in parliament with regard to a question on flood relief, the Bathinda MP said it shocking that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had not submitted any report to the centre about two massive floods which occurred in Punjab in 2023 leading to the destruction of 10, 000 houses and damage to more than 60, 000 households as well as standing crops.
While answering a question about the centre’s failure to give flood relief to Punjab, Jal Shakti minister C R Paatil informed that the Punjab government had submitted that no flooding had taken place in 2023 and that the last floods occurred in 2019. “It is due to this criminal inefficiency and misgovernance that Punjab is suffering”, Mrs Badal said while calling for grant of appropriate flood relief to Punjab.
Mrs Badal also disclosed that large-scale corruption was occurring in the name of cleaning of drains in Punjab and urged that satellite technology be used to access work done in this regard as well as feedback from respective village panchayats. She also talked about how the Haryana government always issued prohibitory orders to prevent strengthening of the Chandpura bandh in its territory and breached it to save its territory and flood villages in Punjab.