SAMANA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said chief minister Bhagwant Mann had perpetrated a fraud in the name of the Invest Punjab summit by claiming an investment of Rs 1.55 lakh crore in the State in the last four years when the actual investment was only Rs 2, 600 crore.
Addressing a massive rally here along with Samana halka incharge Jagmeet Singh Haryau, the SAD president said as per the latest RTI information accessed by the party from the Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion department only Rs 2600 crore has been invested in Punjab during the last 4 years. “The only investment which has come into Punjab during AAP tenure is Rs 2600 which has been done by Tata Steel in Ludhiana”, he added.
Demanding an explanation and apology from the chief minister for lying blatantly about Rs 1.55 lakh investment during AAP tenure, Mr Badal said the SAD had been consistently asserting that investors were scared to invest in Punjab due to the culture of extortions and gangster raj. “We are committed to resorting rule of law and giving concessions to the industry to kickstart investment in the State in 2027”, he added.
Speaking about how people were still protesting against the spate of sacrileges and strict laws to deal with them as was happening in Samana, Mr Badal said “we will strive to enact a law calling for death sentence in such cases”. He said earlier also during the SAD government in 2016 the Vidhan Sabha had enacted a law calling for awarding life sentences for sacrilege committed against the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj but the same was not passed by the centre. He also talked in detail how sacrilege incidents started in Punjab only after AAP entered the State in 2014 and how AAP legislator Naresh Yadav had even been convicted in a sacrilege case.
Mr Badal also condemned the State government’s decision to conduct the so-called Drug Census by using teachers for the same. He said besides putting extra burden on government teachers it would also compromise the studies of children. “Moreover it is not the job of teachers to do such surveys”, he said while demanding teachers be immediately disassociated from the survey.
The SAD president also spoke on how the parties of Delhi had always discriminated against Punjab. He said Punjab was denied its own State capital upon reorganisation of the State and Punjabi speaking areas were also kept out of the new State. “Half of our River waters were also given to Rajasthan by the Congress party against the Riparian Principle. The parties of Delhi only come to rule and loot while the SAD has served you through thick and thin”, he added.