Badal, Dhindsa families joined hands to stall work on Sangrur medical college for their vested political interests: Punjab CM

Sangrur (Punjab) [India], January 1 : Amid a controversy over the ownership of the land where Sangrur Medical College was proposed to be built, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday accused Badal and Dhindsa families of "joining hands" to stall the work for their "vested political interests".
"The Badal and Dhindsa family have sunk all their political differences just to stall this ambitious project. Both affluent families have made concerted efforts to ensure that this project should not kick off by creating legal troubles," CM said.
The state government had decided to construct a state-of-the-art medical College in the memory of Sant Baba Atar Singh Mastauna Sahib near Sangrur for which a fund of Rs 407 crore was earmarked. But after a controversy over the ownership of the land, no work has been carried out on it.
Bhagwant Mann also claimed that Badals misused the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to get this project stalled.
"It is unfortunate that the SGPC is acting like a puppet in the hands of the Badal family and is being used by them for fulfilling their nefarious political designs. Badals are misusing SGPC for stalling this project, which can have transformed the fortunes of the people of the region," Mann said.
Interacting with the media persons here today, the Chief Minister categorically said that the ugly face of both these families has been exposed as they don't want that the common man should get the benefit of this upcoming medical college due to which they had conspired to stall work on this prestigious project.
The land upon which the government wants to construct the college is registered under the name of Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib, which is under the Sant Attar Singh Gursagar Mastuana Trust.
On September 4, 1964, the government had issued a notification and announced that the gurdwara property would be brought under the control of the SGPC.
The Chief Minister said, "The college was to commence its first academic session in March this year, after which the people of the entire Malwa region could have got the best medical facilities in the region. Likewise, he said that the youth from the region would have access to higher medical education and they would not have gone to any foreign country for getting medical education. Apart from all these things, this medical College would have offered a lot of direct and indirect employment opportunities to the youth of the region besides giving a major push to the overall development of the entire Malwa belt, but the work is stalled now."
The Chief Minister reiterated that It was the firm commitment of his government to start this project by all means so that the people of the state can be benefited from it.
He said that Badal or Dhindsa can do whatever they want, but this project will start at every cost.
Coming down heavily on the opposition in the state, Mann said that the single-point agenda of Akali leadership was to derail the development of the state.
"In the dearth of any concrete issue against his government and the Akalis are just beating around the bush to the hog media limelight," Mann added.