Farmers Movement Archive

New posters in Ludhiana underscore change of guard in Punjab government

In the run up to the assembly polls, the familiar face of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh has been replaced by that of his successor Charanjit Singh Channi to reflect the change of guard at the state level. Flex boards have been installed at around 150 unipoles and other advertisement sites in the city over the last few days. Apart from familiarising the people to the new chief minister, the boards also advertise the Cabinet’s recent decisions such as waiving off pending arrears of power bills. In a bid to woo the farming sector, the government has extended support to their demand to repeal the farm laws and have published details of a loan waiver for farmers. The hoardings have been installed at different locations such as Mall Road, Ferozepur Road, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Haibowal, Jagraon Bridge, Gill Road, BRS Nagar, and Rajguru Nagar. Hoardings featuring Captain Amarinder Singh had been removed from the Unipoles on September 20 amid political turmoil in Congress. Former Congress district president Ashwani Sharma said the posters had been changed as MLA Channi was the incumbent CM. “Every ruling party promotes the work done by the government and the Congress, which has taken historic decisions recently, is raising awareness among the public.” An MC official, requesting anonymity, said the MC had allotted the contract for outdoor advertisement to a private company in the city and the state government had directly approached the contractor for placing flex boards and payment was also being made directly. “The MC receives monthly instalments from the contractor and the civic body has nothing to do with the flex boards promoting government schemes and decisions.”

Hindustan Times

05-10-2021

Chandigarh