Badal denies factionalism

MOGA, Dec 30: Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Parkash Singh Badal today made it clear that there was absolu...

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MOGA, Dec 30: Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Parkash Singh Badal today made it clear that there was absolutely no crisis within the party and also denied any instability to the SAD-BJP government due to the on-going differences between him and SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

Badal was talking to newspersons at village Bilaspur, about 40 km from here, where he had come to attend the `bhog’ and `antim ardas’ of the mother of MLA Malkiat Singh Kitoo.

The Chief Minister said that 1999 would be observed as the Year of Development in the state. The state government has allocated Rs 800 crore for the repairs and construction of roads to be carried out next year in the state, he added.

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Badal said that 20-25 km new link roads would be constructed in every Vidhan Sabha constituency of the state. He said that the state government was giving top priority to eradicate unemployment among the educated youth and planned to provide training facilities like poultry, dairying and piggery, so that after the training these youth could set up their own units.

The state government, on an experimental basis, has launched two such training projects, one each in Bathinda and Amritsar districts.