Chandigarh, Feb 1 (PTI) A retired bureaucrat will take on a former babu in Ludhiana’s Gill Assembly constituency where BJP nominee Sucha Ram Ladhar is pitted against Congress’ sitting MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid.
A 1991 batch Punjab cadre officer, the 63-year-old Ladhar says he has taken the plunge to continue serving the people.
Among others, Ladhar is pitted against Congress’ sitting MLA Vaid, who is also a former bureaucrat. Interestingly, Vaid’s brother Sarabjit joined the BJP on Saturday.
A M.Tech degree holder, Ladhar joined Punjab’s Irrigation Department in 1982 and after serving for few years, he became an IAS officer in 1991 and was posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Ludhiana.
Ladhar says he served the state in various capacities including as Additional Deputy Commissioner, Muktsar, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Mansa, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Sangrur districts.
He also served as Commissioner of Jalandhar and Patiala Divisions and later in Revenue, Home, Transport, Cooperative, Rural and Panchayat and Planning Departments in Chandigarh.
During his posting as DC Bathinda, he was instrumental in starting a school for the deaf and dumb children with hostels for boys and girls.
He also started a scheme to build toilets for the poor in villages of Punjab.
As DC of Bathinda and Sangrur districts, all village roads were made encroachment free, he says.
“While being posted in different departments and districts, I always did such works which were in public interest as a public servant.
“Now, having retired a couple of years ago, I thought of taking up a political career so that I could dedicate the rest of my life in serving people, especially the downtrodden and underprivileged,” Ladhar told PTI.
Ladhar, who had earlier formed a front “Kirti Kisan Sher-ePunjab” to raise farmers and farm labourers’ issues, said even though the farm unions gave the slogan of “Kisan Mazdoor Ekta Zindabad”, they did not plead their cause.
Referring to the farm laws issue, he said now as the legislations have been withdrawn by the Centre, so those outfits, which still try to rake up the issue, should refrain from doing so. He said there is a serious issue of Punjab’s mounting debt and parties should talk about what they intend to do about it.
“If Punjab has to be pulled out of the debt trap and taken on the path of prosperity, only the BJP can do that,” he asserts.
The BJP is contesting the February 20 polls in alliance with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh led Punjab Lok Congress and SAD (Sanyukt) of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party, he said the party has been promising freebies without any plan on how to generate resources and how to pull the state out of debt trap.
“The AAP spent crores of rupees putting up posters and hoardings– ‘Ek Mauka Kejriwal ko’–but Arvind Kejriwal should first explain how the AAP leader intends to pull the state out of Rs 3 lakh crore debt,” he said.
He also hit out at the Congress for allegedly looting the state and said the sole agenda of the ruling party in the state and main opposition AAP “is to grab power”.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the poll-bound state earlier this month, he hit out at the Congress, alleging the visit was deliberately sabotaged “and the people had to pay the price as the PM could not inaugurate developmental projects worth thousands of crores of rupees”.
He also hit out at the Congress, alleging they only exploit the sentiments of the Dalit community for their votebank politics.
“In Maharashtra, they made Sushil Kumar Shinde CM before the polls and once elections were over, he was removed. It is Congress’ old habit to say one thing and do the other only to garner votes, but they cannot befool people,” he said.
Punjab goes to polls on February 20.PTI SUN VSD DV DV DV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
