SHAHKOT: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said chief minister Bhagwant Mann had just woken up to the injustice rendered to Punjab by the flow of half of it’s River waters to Rajasthan instead of acting on the 2016 resolution passed by the Vidhan Sabha during the erstwhile SAD government demanding royalty for River waters supplied to not only Rajasthan but also Haryana and Delhi.
Addressing a massive rally here as part of the party’s Punjab Bachao campaign along with halka incharge Bachittar Singh Kohar, the SAD president said “the chief minister’s statement on taking royalty from Rajasthan is a knee jerk reaction after I announced that the next SAD government would not allow one drop of water to flow into the Rajasthan canal. We are committed to correcting the historical wrong done to Punjab by the Congress party which gave away half of our River waters to Rajasthan. This water will be diverted to the fields of Punjab”.
Asserting that chief minister Bhagwant Mann was indulging in such diversionary politics instead of resolving the grievances of Punjabis. “Potato farmers are dumping their crop on the roads but the chief minister is impervious to their misery. The SAD demands the government intervene and direct Markfed to lift the potato crop on reserved prices to stop distress selling. I also assure that the next SAD government will evolve a mechanism for market intervention by State agencies in case of any such glut”, he told farmers.
Mr Sukhbir Badal also spoke on how the SAD had been maintaining that AAP leaders and legislators were trafficking drugs and even taking monthlies from drug lords. “This has been proved with the arrest of a close aide of AAP leader Talbir Gill with 4 kg of heroin. The patronage the AAP government is giving to gangsters can be gauged from the fact that the aunt of dreaded gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who was used to intimidate political opponents in elections to the Zila Parishad and Block Samitis, has been made Chairperson of the Dera Baba Nanak Block Samiti”.
He also spoke on how AAP was using gangsters like Jaggu Bhagwanpuria to intimidate political opponents in electing Chairpersons to Block Samitis and how the gangster’s aunt had even been made Chairperson of the Dera Baba Nanak Block Samiti.