'Aam Aadmi' in Punjab impatiently waiting for AAP to fulfil pre-poll promises

New Delhi: Making pre-poll promises is a routine exercise to win the confidence of voters by generating hope among them by the respective political parties but fulfilling them on coming to the power is a matter of choice since the promises made by candidates are not legally accountable.

In a run-up to Punjab Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates, many of them now MLAs and ministers, made a promise of  300 units of free electricity, Rs 1000 to each woman who is 18 years of age, agriculture reforms etc.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced giving free electricity from July 1 but with certain conditions which have irked the 'Aam Aadmi' (common man) who is already peeved at the party for not keeping its promise of round-the-clock electricity supply.

“AAP leaders have doubled our expectations from the government but they are not doing anything so far except making more announcements,” said Sourab Singh, who has begun a garment startup on the outskirts of the Ludhiana.

No doubt after giving a massive mandate to AAP, the voters in Punjab are getting restless and impatient waiting for the AAP government to fulfil its pre-poll promises.

After over one and half months of formation of the government in Punjab, the ‘Aam Aadmi’  including shopkeepers, employees,  farmers, industrialists, etc. have begun questioning the AAP’s 24 hours free power supply promise even as many areas are facing over 8 hours of electricity cuts.

Mocking at the AAP’s promise of regularizing sand prices in the state on coming to power, former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu said when Congress was in power, a trolley of sand used to sell for Rs 3600 but now it was being sold for around Rs 16000 a trolley, which according to Sidhu, had brought all the construction work to a standstill and threw construction labour out of work.

“Before making promises, the AAP’s leaders must have done some homework but we don’t see anything on the power turf, in our area the light remains off every Monday from 9 am to 5 pm besides there are other unscheduled power cuts as they used to be earlier” complained Avinish Sharma, a shop keeper.

A retired teacher Joginder Kaur, who now runs a grocery shop in her house said, “Our AAP  candidate who is now MLA had made tall claims that if AAP is voted to power there will not be any power cut including for maintenance cuts but there is no improvement of any sort in electricity supply”.  

Farmers have already announced dharna in front of the offices of Deputy Commissioners’ across the state on May 5  in protest against power outages and the non-fulfilment of promises made by AAP leaders before coming to power.