Punjab CM, his deputy behaved like 'cowards': Amarinder

Chandigarh, Jan 6 (IANS) Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday lashed out at Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa for behaving like "cowards" by running away from their responsibilities.

Addressing a public meeting in Samana town, Capt Amarinder said: "There was a grave security lapse and the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, who heads the Home department, should own the responsibility."

He said true leaders own up responsibilities and do not pass the buck on others. "This is no leadership, it is cowardice", he said while referring to the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister trying to shift blame on others over the grave security lapse during the Prime Minister's visit to Ferozepur on Wednesday.

He criticised the Chief Minister for not receiving the Prime Minister personally at the Bathinda airport.

Capt Amarinder also appealed to the farmers that they should stop blocking roads and railway tracks now and instead focus on what is in their interests and that of Punjab and he will support them like he did in the past.

"I supported the farmers when they were staging dharna at Tikri and Singhu borders and not only that, those farmers who died during the protest, I paid Rs five lakh each to their families and one government job," he said.

The former Chief Minister regretted that Punjab had suffered a loss in image over Wednesday's incident. "Whole world was watching that the Punjab government failed to provide safe and secure passage to the Prime Minister to launch various development projects," he said, while adding, it was Punjab's loss on other fronts also as the Prime Minister was supposed to inaugurate projects worth Rs 43,000 crore, which included few hospitals and roads and which have now got delayed.

Capt Amarinder appealed to the people to vote cautiously and carefully and not get carried away by the unrealistic promises made by people like Arvind Kejriwal and Navjot Singh Sidhu.

He said while Kejriwal was promising Rs 1,000 per month to every woman, Sidhu was promising Rs 2,000. He said even if only Rs 1,000 was paid to all women of Punjab every month, the state will need about one lakh twenty thousand crore rupees for this purpose only as the total population of women in the state is about one crore.

"And do you think it is financially feasible when Punjab is under a debt of about Rs five lakh crore?" he asked.