Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, Hailing what he termed as the strongest ever indictment of the Parkash Singh Badal government by the alliance partner, the BJP while finally publicly rejecting the demand for a special package for this crisis ridden state, the Punjab Congress President, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa described it as the last nail in the coffin of this government which had put all its stakes on Mr. Narendra Modi taking over as the Prime Minister. Moreover, it had now turned out that this crisis was the result of the mismanagement by the rulers and was thus “made by Badals”.
Referring to the caustic remarks made by BJP’s Punjab incharge and the former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mr Shanta Kumar on the “five star culture” of the Badal government, the PPCC chief said nothing could be more humiliating for Mr Badal than these observations on the functioning of his government which had been resorting to profligacy and unproductive expenditure adding to the debt burden on the logic that it was necessary for taking up development projects.
Mr Bajwa called upon Mr Badal to explain as to how come that the demand for a special package made by his government had been categorically rejected by the Modi government as evident from what Mr Shanta Kumar had commented saying the centre could not go out of the way and the assistance to the states could only be extended in the framework of the laid down policy and legal provisions.
“We were waiting that Mr Badal would take his trucks to Delhi to bring back truck-loads of money from the Modi government but it is now abundantly clear that he had been making such promises to the people to befool them. It is not possible that a person of his stature who has become the Chief Minister for the fifth time is unaware of the provisions under which the centre makes the devolution to the states. His lies now stand exposed and he has no moral right to continue after such a strong indictment”, he added.
Referring to objections raised by Mr Shanta Kumar on rationalisation of the free power subsidy, he asked as to why rich farmers like Mr Badal himself should enjoy this facility. He said his party was not against subsidy but the same should not be used as a cover for power theft and inefficiency of the power utilities.
The PPCC chief pointed out that the UPA government had never out rightly rejected any such demand made by Mr Badal but despite that, he had been alleging discrimination. Now he must have the guts to admit that it was the UPA government which had been more friendly than his own Modi government. He said it was the Badal family which had personally gained with the BJP coming into power at the centre by way of induction of Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal as the cabinet minister while the losers were the people.
