GURDASPUR: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today asserted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was trying to deceive the people of Gujarat during ongoing electioneering there by appropriating schemes which had been initiated by the erstwhile SAD government as their own.
Addressing a mammoth rally here as part of the Punjab Bachao campaign of the party along with senior leader Gurbachan Singh Babehali, the SAD president said “yesterday Bhagwant Mann had claimed that AAP had established Mandis after every 4 km in Punjab and would do the same in Gujarat. Today his boss Arvind Kejriwal scaled up the lies by claiming that AAP would give free power facility to farmers on the same pattern as was done in Punjab by the party.
They are also announcing that they have started giving Rs 1, 000 per month to women in Punjab despite the fact that this scheme is yet to be implemented”.
Asserting that such deceit would not serve AAP well in Gujarat or Punjab, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “everyone has realised that this is a government which spends thousands on crores on advertisements but does nothing on the ground”.
Badal also castigated the government for carrying out a cover up exercise by taking action against a few junior officers in the Milkfed Verka milk powder scam even as he demanded an independent probe into the rejection of whole milk powder supplied by Milkfed to the Indian army.
Asserting that corruption in Milkfed had it’s roots at the very top, Mr Badal said “since chief minister Bhagwant Mann holds the Cooperation portfolio he cannot be expected to hold an inquiry against himself. Only an independent probe can reveal the truth and ensure punishment to those who have tarnished the image of Punjab nationally”.
Sukhbir Badal also condemned the chief minister for not making adequate arrangements for procuring the forthcoming wheat crop in advance. He said wheat would start coming in the Mandis in another ten days but the government had still not made arrangements for gunny bags and was itself admitting that it did not have the requisite facilities to store the foodgrain. “This is in stark comparison to former chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal who used to make all these arrangements two months in advance”.