CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi to give an account of the promises made in the Congress party’s election manifesto for the year 2017-22 even as it trashed the full page advertisements listing the chief minister’s purported achievements during the last two months as a pack of lies.
Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the chief minister should tell the fate of all the promises made by the Congress party through its 2017 manifesto. “Only one picture has changed in the manifesto – that of Capt Amarinder Singh. The remaining three – Dr Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi stand accountable for the promises made by the Congress party as does Mr Channi who was an integral part of the party at that time”.
Telling Channi he could not run away from owning responsibility for the Congress manifesto by blaming his predecessor for the same, Dr Daljit Cheema said “people were waiting for you to give an account of the promised Rs 90, 000 crore farm loan waiver and you simply cannot wash your hands off this responsibility by putting the onus on the centre.
Similarly people expected you to give an account of how many jobs the Congress government has given to the youth and why it deceived them with the ‘ghar ghar naukari’ slogan?”
The SAD leader said instead of telling the truth and admitting his government had failed on all fronts, the chief minister had mischievously come out with full page advertisements aimed at self congratulation for the work done by him in the last two months.
“These advertisements are a pack of lies. Earlier the chief minister was known as Aailanjit Singh because he believed in making announcements only. Now he will also be known as Vishwasghat Singh because he is using fake announcements to deceive the people”.
Taking the chief minister head-on, Dr Cheema asked him to explain why he was lying about Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) being scrapped when nothing of this sort had happened and even a show cause notice issued to the private thermal companies had been stayed by a central Tribunal.
He said similarly the order of the Punjab State Regulatory Commission had made it clear that the order reducing power tariff by Rs 3 per unit was temporary and applicable till March 31 only. “The chief minister had made it clear that the reduction would be effective from November 1 but now he is stating that it will be implemented in mid January, days before the election”.
Taking a dig at Mr Channi, the SAD leader said all announcements of the chief minister had been left open for the next government to fulfill. He said the PSPCL had not even given the required Rs 1, 500 crore to the PSPCL for waving off arrears of domestic electricity consumers with load up to 2 kilo watt. He said similarly money had not been allocated for the Rs 1, 168 crore waiver of electricity bills vis a vis water supply schemes. He said the situation was such that the government was even waiving off future bills of panchayats and claiming credit for establishment of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagwad Geeta Research Centre for which the location had also not been finalized.
He also ridiculed the CM for claiming sand prices had been brought down to Rs 5.50 per cubic feet when the real price remained Rs 28 per cubic feet.
Dr Cheema also asked Channi to first give an account of the work done by his as technical education minister for more than four and a half years. “If youth have not got jobs it is partly because of his lassitude”.
He also asked the chief minister to explain why all sections of society were protesting against him and his government if he had taking epoch making decisions as claimed by him. “The truth is that you have done nothing and will do nothing. You continue to squander public money to sell lies for which the people will hold you accountable”.