The Punjab Rural Development, NRI Affairs and Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Mr. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, today met the Union Minister for Road Transport, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, at Transport Bhawan, New Delhi to take up development and strengthening of road infrastructure in the border areas of Punjab.
After the meeting, Cabinet Minister Mr. Dhaliwal while talking to the media informed that the Union Ministry of Road Transport has given approval for the construction and up-gradation of two important roads in the border areas of Amritsar district. He said that the construction of Ghonewala Ramdass Road to Gulgarh road from near Dhusi Bann along the Ravi River and the development of Ajnala-Fatihgarh Churian-Ramdas road in border area block Ajnala have been given approval under the Central Road Fund (CRF). He further said that due to the non-development of these two roads, the development of around 100 villages suffered a lot, but the completion of this project will give a big boost to the development of this area.
Kuldeep Dhaliwal said that this meeting was held in a conducive atmosphere with positive response by the Union Minister for each issue. ‘The Union Minister Gadkari has also given approval to develop the roads in Ajnala city and three roads between villages Awan, Gaggowal and Thoba under rehabilitation and assured to release the funds within the week for these roads. The Punjab Minister also disclosed that Union Minister Gadkari has assured that projects to develop other roads in the state will also be considered on priority basis.
In response to a question asked about the campaign being conducted by the Punjab government to free possession of panchayat lands, Mr. Dhaliwal said that during the last five months, 9 thousand 53 acres of land have been freed from illegal possession and this campaign will continue in the same way in the future. Lambasting at the leaders of opposition parties about the criticism being made by them regarding this campaign, Dhaliwal said that these panchayti lands have been illegally occupied during the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal governments and these parties are doing baseless criticism only to cover up their failures.