CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today said farmers as well as Kisan organizations could never be satisfied as long as the Congress government did not implement a complete farm loan waiver as promised by it.
The SAD President was speaking at a function here during the course of which Congress Intellectual Cell President Anish Sidana joined the party along with his entire team.
Mr Sukhbir Badal appointed him his Political Advisor for urban areas and requested him to take the party’s policies and vision to the people.
Among those who join the party Partap Singh Ferozpur President Sain Samaj, S. Ramesh Bagoria President Prajapat Samaj, . Anuj Sood Fatehgarh Sahib, . Narinder Singh Nannu Kukkar, Sh. Raman Sain Jalalabad, . Parvinder Kukkar General Secretary Youth Congress, . Raman Juneja Zirkpur and Bunty Baweja Jalalabad.
Mr Sukhbir Badal expressed surprise at the satisfaction expressed by farmer organization representatives after meeting the chief minister yesterday.
He said the farming community was still awaiting implementation of the complete loan waiver promise. “The Congress party even took a holy oath on the Gutka Sahib on this issue. Even chief minister Charanjit Channi was party to this commitment. He should not try to run away from it now. Farmers as well as farmer organizations should also tell the Congress party to stand on its words”. He said similarly the farmers expected the Kisan organizations to take up the issue of extreme shortage and black marketing of DAP fertilizer with the chief minister in their meeting with him yesterday.
Mr Badal also launched a frontal attack on the chief minister on the occasion. He said Mr Charanjit Channi was the biggest illegal colonizer in the State and was responsible for the mushrooming of illegal colonies in the Kharar-Ropar belt besides holding control over the sand mining business in the area. Mr Badal said the chief minister was known to patronize illegal colonies as well as the sand mafia. “This is the reason why Mr Charanjit Channi has played a farce on the people in the name of reducing sand prices. People are not getting sand at Rs 5 per cubic feet as announced by the chief minister anywhere but the State exchequer has lost Rs 50 crore advertising this falsehood”. He said the chief minister had also come up with false claims about making petroleum prices cheapest in the region and had also tried to hood wink Punjabis by reducing power tariff by Rs 3 per unit till March 31.
Later when queried about the ongoing STF (Special Task Force) report case in the high court, Mr Badal said “no one is stopping the Punjab government from nabbing the drug lords”. He said it was strange that instead of arresting the drug lords, the Congress government was politicizing the issue in the same manner as it had done in the sacrilege case.
Mr Badal also challenged the government to present a single shred of evidence against him in the sacrilege case, saying the government was working overtime to frame him in the case. “The chief minister, home minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and DGP IPS Sahota are liable to be held to account under Section 120 (b) for hatching a criminal conspiracy to frame me in a false case which has been exposed by the SAD”.
Answering a question regarding cancellation of bus permits, Mr Badal said bus permits of his transport company had been cancelled even without issuing any notice to it. “We do not owe even Rs one in taxes to the Punjab government. In direct contrast companies of Congress leaders are defaulters but are not being proceeded against. The State is also owed Rs 280 crore in taxes from buses of the State Transport undertaking. Only we have been penalized”.
Earlier while speaking on the occasion, Mr Anish Sidana said he had joined the SAD because he believed that the SAD alone could make a change. He said Mr Sukhbir Badal was known to plan big and achieve big. “The development done by Mr Badal including the infrastructure projects which came up during the erstwhile SAD led government are there for all to see. Punjab also achieved a power surplus status”. He said in direct contrast the Congress government was only indulging in negative politics by trying politicizing the sacrilege case.
Other leaders present on the occasion included Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Raj Kumar Gupta, Hansraj Josan and Satinderjit Manta.