SHAHID BHAGAT SINGH NAGAR: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) anti-farmer alliance which was continuously denying justice to farmers and had resulted in the death of a farmer during a protest in Patiala today.
Expressing his deep condolences at the death of Surinderpal Singh who succumbed during a protest against BJP candidate Preneet Kaur at Patiala today, the SAD president said “the BJP and AAP have formed an alliance against the farmers and are denying justice to them. This has prolonged the farmer agitation in Punjab and is causing misery to the entire farming community”.
Telling the BJP and the AAP to stop safeguarding the interests of corporates, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “this is not the first time that the BJP and AAP are playing as a team. Earlier during the farmer agitation two months back, the AAP government refused to take action against the Haryana Police who tear gassed our farmers and even attacked them with rubber bullets and live ammunition to stop them from proceeding to Delhi”.
Asking Punjabis to see through this conspiracy, Mr Badal appealed to them to seal the borders of Punjab to all outside parties with their votes to counter the BJP-AAP combine which had sealed the borders by force to stop the farmers from proceeding to Delhi.
Mr Badal also took on chief minister Bhagwant Mann for discriminating against the scheduled caste community as well as poorer sections of society during his ongoing Punjab Bachao Yatra which received a massive response in both Banga and Nawanshahr constituencies. He said it was shocking that all social welfare benefits earmarked for the weaker sections were being curtailed and even diverted for advertisements and propaganda exercises besides hiring of aircraft and election campaigns of AAP in other States. “This amounts to criminal negligence of State resources, " Mr Badal said, adding Rs 1, 000 crore had been spent on advertisements alone. We will probe this scam and ensure all those who have discriminated against our scheduled caste brethren are punished appropriately once the SAD is returned to power”, Mr Badal added.
SAD senior leader Dr Sukhwinder Kumar and party Nawanshehr president Sukhdeep Singh Sukarpur also briefed the SAD president how thousands of atta-dal and old age pension cards had been deleted in both constituencies. They also disclosed that young brides had not received the Shagun benefit from the government for more than one year.
Mr Badal also interacted with youth who said they were being forced to go abroad because the AAP government was not giving them jobs. They said the few hundred jobs which had been given during the AAP tenure were being given to outsiders on the direct orders of AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal. They also complained that the drug menace had increased and that AAP legislators were shielding the drug mafia. The SAD president while giving a patient hearing to the youth assured that creating job opportunities in the government and private sector as well as eradicating the menace of drugs and gangsters would be the number one priority of the next SAD government.
Senior leader Jarnail Singh Wahid and Democratic Party of India (DPI) president Rohan Chadha also accompanied the SAD president during the Yatra. EOM