Power supply major poll issue in Punjab
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 18
While the poll fever is yet to grip residents of the high-profile Patiala Parliamentary constituency, having high stakes of top leadership of the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), power supply has emerged out to be single major poll issue for people of rural as well as urban areas of Punjab.

The political parties are yet to venture out into their rural pocket- boroughs. Political leaders have hardly started holding daily meetings in villages, which were still far away from any heightened political activity.

Not a single party flag or poster greeted The Tribune team which undertook an extensive tour of rural areas of Patiala district to underline major issues concerning common people and to judge their mood in the wake of the ensuing polls.

“Poll-related activities are late this time due to clash of harvesting season and polling dates. In fact, while people are busy in wheat harvesting, political leaders are yet to find any time for people of countryside. Power supply continued to elude us for days together. We also had to spend eight days in the mandi for sale of wheat this time,” rued Davinder Singh, a farmer of Bakshiwala village.

For Gian Singh of Chimbru village, power supply hovers around his mind as a major issue. “I am not educated, but, what is life without electricity in rural or urban areas?” questioned Gian Singh.

“For me power is no issue. Rather, weather played spoilsport this time. There is no laxity on the part of the government. Only issue which keeps lurking in my mind is that the government is not releasing tubewell connections under the OYT scheme,” felt Amrik Singh of Dittupur village.

For Kiran Dev Rai, a rice mill worker and Pal Singh, a farmer of Jatimal village, the biggest issue was prevailing corruption within the system. “We will vote on the party basis and not considering any individual. Power supply situation is so bad that power greets us hardly for one and a half hours a day on an average,” complained both of them in unison.

Simrat Singh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur of the same village, said power supply for him was the biggest headache. “Effluent people maintain generators, but, where should the poor go in absence of power?” he questioned.