Badal says CM trying to hood wink people in election year

Chandigarh, (Gurpreet) – Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today said after betraying Punjabis and reneging on each and every promise made to them, the Congress government and chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh were trying to hood wink the people in the election year with announcements they had no to implement in their letter and spirit.

Asserting that the time for implementing the promises made to the people had passed and that “jumlas” could never replace hard work and intent, the SAD President said the Congress party had tried to indulge in skullduggery in its budget today by renewing old promises and schemes for which even outlays had been allocated but never released, with new packaging. “The government apparently realizes it can only rely on jumlas to see it through in the absence of substance. This is an insult to hardworking Punjabis who voted the Congress to power believing the promises made by the chief minister by taking a vow on the holy Gutka Sahib and the Dasam Pitah”.

Speaking about the budget, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “the finance minister knew that he had nothing to give because of bad fiscal management which is resulting in the State’s debt doubling and galloping towards the Rs three lakh crore mark. He also knows he has only Rs 6,882 crore for capital works which is negligible considering the number of promises made to the people, none of which have been fulfilled till now. This is why some measures like the promised enhancement of Shagun amount to Rs 51,000 and old age pension to Rs 1,500 have been announced with a rider saying they will be implemented from July this year. Seeing the government’s track record they might not be implemented even one month before the election”, he said adding the promise which had been made to the people was to fulfill these conditions from March 2017. “If the government is serious about fulfilling these promises it should implement the enhanced Shagun scheme and the old age pension scheme from March, 2017 or stop trying to fool the people with empty statements”.

Mr Badal also castigated the finance minister for making another promise to women which he had no aim of fulfilling. He said even in last year’s budget the FM had promised fifty per cent concession to women for travel on state transport buses but did not implement the promise. He said this year the FM had now come out with a free travel facility promise for women. “How can anyone believe such a FM?” he asked.

The SAD President said the government had befooled farmers by promising a complete loan waiver promise for four years. “The final budget of this corrupt and insensitive government has again betrayed the farmers. The government did not disburse Rs 3000 crore earmarked for farm loan waiver for 2019-20 besides not disbursing Rs 2,000 crore earmarked for 2020-21. Now it has allocated a pittance of Rs 1,712 core for farm loan waiver and landless labourers which is a cruel joke on both of them”, Mr Badal added.