Crowd during the swearing-in ceremony of Bhagwant Mann as Punjab's CM at Khatkar Kalan in Nawanshahar on Wednesday. “Lokan ne tan bhar-bhar ke votan ditiyan, te sab ton vadh sittan jitaian. Hun sarkar ton iss tarah da hi inquilab chahida (People ushered in a revolution in Punjab by giving highest-ever seats to the Aam Aadmi Party. Now, in return, we expect the same revolution from the government through its performance).” No too far away from the stage where Bhagwant Mann took oath of office as the new Punjab CM, Jaswinder Kaur, an AAP supporter, set the bar for him and his new government.
The 51-year-old from a Jagraon village in district Ludhiana, added: “My son is a graduate and I want that government should provide him some respectable job whether it is government or private.”
She had come to attend the event along with her son.
The venue of Mann’s swearing-in at Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village was chock-full Wednesday not only by AAP cadre but large number of unaffiliated supporters who voted for the party in hope of a ‘revolution’.
Another AAP supporter, Jasbir Kaur from Kalanaur in Gurdaspur district, said that she lived under constant fear that her unemployed son would fall prey to drugs.
“We have seen several governments earlier and all of them have disappointed us. But this one claims that it is different and will change the life of aam aadmi. I want that it should eradicate unemployment from the state and also save our children from nasha,” she said.
“In our villages nasha is sold openly. The police and politicians are in the know, and we are always worried for our children. Now, Bhagwant Mann should finish all this,” said another women Rajwant Kaur from Moga’s Darapur village.
Almost everyone who had reached the venue to witness the swearing-in ceremony had hope that the new government would help Punjab turn a page for better.
Sharanjit Kaur, a young women from Jalandhar’s Nakodar area, said: “I and my brother are BA-BEd and we want good jobs for ourselves, so that we can support our parents who did a lot of hard work to make us study,” she said.
Rakshika Madan from Nawanshahr spoke about fixing the state’s schools.
“We have been spending huge amount of money on the education of our children in private schools and now ‘Delhi Model’ government schools must be opened in the state as it will save us from huge expenditure and with that savings we can live a confortable,” she said.
Mann too touched these issues of unemployment and education in his speech.
Amid the crowd of youngsters wanting affordable education and better jobs, were farmers and businessmen seeking that their issues be addressed on priority.
“We want that farmer suicides to end in Punjab. Farmers must get the proper price of their crop,” said a farmer Major Singh from Waryah village of Tarn Taran district.
Another farmer Manjit Singh said: “I want that my debt should be waived off by this government and we should get proper price of the our crop. And we should also get all the basic facilities in our villages”.
Ludhiana-based businessman Paraminder Singh said: “We expect a lot of change from this government for the growth of our state in every sector so that our industry could be revived here.”
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