Asian Games bronze medallist Satnam Singh’s achievement was the centre of attention as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann held the ‘Lok Milni’ programme at the former’s native Fatta Maloka village in the Sardulgarh Assembly segment on Monday and honoured the rower with a cheque of Rs 50 lakh.Satnam, who hails from a modest family in the village, won bronze in the men’s double sculls event at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, with teammate Salman Khan. It was his second Asian Games bronze after he won a medal in the quadruple sculls event at Hangzhou in 2023. The latest medal was India’s first-ever Asian Games medal in the men’s double sculls.Addressing a large gathering, the CM said he had watched Satnam’s event and announced the Rs 50 lakh reward within two days of the conclusion of the Games. He said the state government gives Rs 1 crore for a gold medal, Rs 75 lakh for silver and Rs 50 lakh for bronze under its sports policy.“Olympians are emerging from villages,” Mann said. He said three generations of people participated in sports at the same ground under the state’s ‘Khedan Vatan Punjab Diyan’ programme. He also said the village’s volleyball and hockey grounds would help keep youngsters away from drugs.Mann used the occasion to highlight his government’s schemes, claiming that 70,685 jobs had been provided without corruption and that residents were benefiting from free treatment at Aam Aadmi Clinics (now Ayushman Arogya Kendras) and health insurance cover of up to Rs 10 lakh. He also claimed that the performance of the state’s government schools had improved and cited an increase in the number of students clearing the NEET examination.He said the government had shifted agricultural power supply to daytime, recalling his own experience of working in the fields and irrigating crops at night. He claimed farmers were getting better paddy yields due to canal water and said underground pipelines were being laid to improve irrigation.The Chief Minister also launched sharp attacks on the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress. He alleged that both the SAD and Congress represented family politics and described their alleged five-point programme as “me, my son, my nephew, my brother-in-law and my sister’s husband”.Taking a dig at newly appointed Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh, Mann said journalists had told him that Pargat was a former hockey player. “He will score a goal if his colleagues pass the ball to him,” Mann said.The CM also targeted SAD’s Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal and said his government’s ‘Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana’ would continue as long as he remained Chief Minister.He urged women to keep their phones with them to prevent fraud involving the scheme and claimed that opposition parties could offer money before the 2027 Assembly elections. He appealed to people to accept such money but vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).Mann presented a Rs 51 lakh cheque to the village panchayat for development works.Actor-turned-politician Karamjit Anmol accompanied him and also sang the song, “Maa dhartiye teri god nu chann hor bathere…”Earlier, some farmers were detained before the CM’s arrival while they were trying to proceed towards the event venue.Some teacher organisations also staged a protest outside the Mansa City-2 police station, demanding the release of their activists. The protesters alleged that several teacher and employee leaders had been detained at different police stations since Jattvibeday night.They said the leaders were campaigning for demands including restoration of the old pension scheme, pending dearness allowance, regularisation of contractual teachers and other allowances.