LUDHIANA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for selling government bonds to finance the needless acquisition of 24, 000 acres of fertile farm land adjoining the city to fill it’s own coffers.
Terming the entire move as a multi -hundred crore scam, the SAD President while talking to newsmen here said “while the tax payer will pay exorbitant interest on the Rs 1000 crore being borrowed to fund the land acquisition, the Aam Aadmi Party will use the acquisition process to make money. It is promising change of land use in back dates to property dealers and land sharks in exchange for bribes”.
Asserting this was the reason why the chief minister had turned a blind eye to the plight of thousands of farmers whose fertile lands would be snatched, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the SAD is committed to saving this farm land. That is why we have announced that we will not let even one inch of this land parcel to be acquired. We are also committed to exposing this scam and bringing those responsible for these corrupt practises to book once the SAD forms the government in the State”.
Asserting that the AAP government was bankrupting the State, Mr Badal said “the States debt has crossed the four lakh crore rupees mark. Out of this one lakh crore rupees have been borrowed by the AAP government in the last three years. At this rate the debt burden will increase by another Rs 50, 000 crore by the time the tenure of this government ends”.
Badal said despite such big borrowings, the AAP government had nothing to show by way of development. “Look around you. Do you see any development work? In fact the condition of roads, lights and sewerage is at its worst ever. All development work from bridges, flyovers to extension of the road network has been done during the previous SAD governments”. He also explained how the weaker sections had not got any benefit from the increased borrowings. “The social benefits have been drastically reduced or completely stopped be it the ‘aata daal’ scheme and the ‘Shagun’ scheme respectively”.