Development of Dakha constituency, elimination of drugs to be top priorities: Cong's Sandeep Sandhu

Congress candidate for the bypoll to the Dakha assembly seat Sandeep Sandhu Saturday said the development of the constituency and complete elimination of drugs will be his top priorities.

Sandhu said he would change the "face of the constituency" if elected to power.

"All of us know that this particular area was worst hit by the problem of drugs and their total elimination will be my top most priority," he told reporters.

He said in the last few years, he had met dozens of people from the Dakha assembly segment who had lost one or the other of their dear ones to drugs.

The Congress candidate asserted that development was the right of the people and the duty of an MLA.

Attributing his mandate to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Sandhu said that given a chance by the people of Dakha, he has a "mission to accomplish".

"The chief minister has given me a specific mandate to work for and serve the people of Dakha and I feel honoured to take this responsibility," he said.

Asked as how would he fulfill his agenda of development since the government was claiming that it did not have money, Sandhu said, "It is a fact that we inherited empty coffers from Akali-BJP government, but we have managed to stabilize the situation and have taken several measures including debt relief worth thousands of crore of rupees to farmers and other development works during the last two and a half years".

He claimed that after the completion of the current term of the government, Punjab will be fund surplus and each and every development project will be executed.

The Dakha constituency will go to polls along with three other assembly seats --Phagwara, Jalalabad, and Mukerian -- in Punjab on October 21.