KYC of Dr. Balbir Singh- a journey full of ups and downs from a small village to cabinet minister
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ April 22,2024
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Dr Balbir Singh, state health minister from Patiala parliamentary constituency for the upcoming lok sabha elections. He is with the party almost since its inception. He has also served as the Co-convener and caretaker Convener of Aam Aadmi Party of Punjab.
Dr Balbir Singh was born to a poor farmer in village Bhaura, near Nawanshahr, Punjab.
From a village school with no benches or electricity, he went on to become a renowned Eye surgeon. He completed his MBBS & MS ophthalmology from Dayanand Medical College Ludhiana in 1980 & 1983 respectively. He later studied to become a super specialist vitreo-retina surgeon.
Due to extreme poverty in the family, his entire education was completed with financial contributions by his native villagers & his teachers.
Patients from Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab & Haryana throng to Patiala to be treated by Dr Balbir.
Remembering his roots, he gave up many lucrative opportunities to go abroad & never chased money. Instead, for 40 years he provided low cost eye care to farmers & poor masses.
As a doctor, he treated lakhs of patients at a very low cost, donated the gift of vision to over 30000 blind patients and distrbuted free medicines to tens of thousands of patients.
Various state government’s of Punjab honoured Dr Balbir on numerous occasions for his medical research, environmental conservation efforts and overall service to society.
In 2014, Dr Balbir entered politics for the first time as the campaign manager of Dr Dharamvir Gandhi & played a pivotal role in his historic victory over Maharani Preneet Kaur in the Lok Sabha Elections.
In 2017, Dr Balbir took on former chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh in the assembly election & fought valiantly to educate people about the fact that he will not do anything for the masses once elected. That prophecy has turned out to be true.
In 2020, Dr Balbir dedicated himself completely to the farmers andolan. Since 27th November 2020, Dr Balbir has been organising a “free medicines & medical services langar” at Delhi borders & these services shall continue till the success of the Andolan/Movement. In Covid, when curfew was imposed, Dr Balbir Singh had also helped his patients, residents through online consultation and medication.
For the 2022 Punjab Vidhan Sabha Elections, AAP volunteer Dr Balbir was committed to:-
Free the people from the deadly trap of traditional politics & politicians.
Remain amongst the people 24×7 and to struggle for their causes.
Make unlimited & genuine efforts for: good education for all children, employment for youth, affordable & quality healthcare, fundamental facilities & justice for all.
Once again AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann fielded Dr Balbir Singh from Patiala (rural) in 2022 assembly elections. Dr Balbir won the 2022 assembly election from Patiala Rural assembly by whopping margin of over 50000 votes and all his opponents lost their security deposits. He is a dedicated and committed foot soldier of the party.
After one year of AAP govt in Punjab, in 2023, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann entrusted Dr Balbir with the responsibility of health & family welfare, medical education and election departments in the Punjab Cabinet.
VISION, MISSION AS MEMBER PARLIAMENT
Dr Balbir Singh has a list of works to do as member parliament, Patiala, if elected. He said, “INDIA alliance is going to form government its government at centre. Many issues are common at centre, state level like unemployment, corruption, inflation etc. But some issues are specific for my region-Patiala parliamentary seat. My first priority will be to solve the issue of Ghaggar. Ghaggar River enters Punjab from Derabassi, passes through Rajpura, Ghanaour, Sanour, Samana, Patran etc. No successive parliamentarian has done anything about Ghaggar’s menace. I’ll permanently solve this issue on priority basis by taking all required steps like making check dams, managing water, making reservoirs etc. whatever is necessary. Similarly, I’ll also work on Patiala Ki Rao. As I had done so much for preserving our environment, I’ll expand my work in all the urban, rural areas under Patiala lok sabha constituency. The sewage system of Patiala is in dilapidated condition. I’ll upgrade it . Nowadays around 60 percent population of Patiala is living under slums. Earlier leaders had made Patiala a ‘City of Slums’. I’ll revive its lost glory and make it a city of gardens, city of lake. He added that as state health minister I am streamlining the health department and if elected as MP I’ll do more in this department. I along with my party MPs will remove the toll plazas on national highways. A commuter has to pay around Rs 1000 as toll tax if anyone go from Amritsar to Delhi by road. I’ll immediately open the highway, GT road that is blocked illegally by government ”
Controversy:
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate, Ravi Inder Singh, in Ropar had convicted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Patiala Rural MLA Dr Balbir Singh, his wife Rupinderjit Saini, son Rahul Saini to three-year rigorous imprisonment in an 11-year-old family dispute case in May 2022. At the time, the court had also granted bail to the three.
Later, Dr Balbir Singh had challenged the judgment and filed an appeal against the sentence and conviction. After that a session’s court had stayed the conviction Dr Balbir Singh in that criminal case.
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