Governance in Punjab paralysed, says Sukhbir Badal

Mansa (Punjab), April 28 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Sunday said like the case of Delhi, governance in Punjab had come to a standstill because Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was not signing any 
file for months now, resulting in complete paralysis in government work. 

He also promised that SAD was committed to establishing a medical college in Mansa once it came into power in the state while castigating the AAP government for promising to establish 16 medical colleges but not even starting work on one institution.

Talking to the media here, Badal said while two lakh school students in Delhi had not got their school uniforms, books, and stationery because Arvind Kejriwal has not resigned as Chief Minister, even after being arrested in a corruption case, education and health services and even various projects had been affected in Punjab because Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was not signing important files since months.

He said no-objection certificates (NOCs) for various projects were also awaiting the Chief Minister’s nod for months.

Urging Punjabis to punish these "power-hungry" politicians, Badal said: "The situation has become such in Punjab that it was for the first time that salaries of various departments including the Health Department and Punjab Police were not released till around April 25."

He accused the AAP government of squandering more than Rs 1,000 crore on advertisements and even spending hundreds of crores on hiring aircraft for the use of AAP convener Kejriwal as well as election campaigns of the AAP across the country.

Stating that the AAP government had failed to generate revenue, Badal said: "Recently the government borrowed Rs 2,500 crore by auctioning the Punjab government stock during the model code of conduct."

He said AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, had claimed they would increase both excise collection as well as mining fees by thousands of crores.

"But instead of doing this, they perpetrated an excise scam on the pattern of the Delhi excise scam and encouraged its legislators to indulge in illegal mining at the cost of the State exchequer," he alleged.

Badal said the only way out of this mess was to reject both the AAP and Congress in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

"This will set the stage for installation of a pro-people government led by SAD which being a regional party would always put the interests of Punjab first and work assiduously to resolve all pending issues of Punjab and Punjabis," he added.

--IANS

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