Jalandhar/Chandigarh, March 16
Aam Aadmi Party’s tall claims of bringing “Badlaav” and making the state “Rangla Punjab” have infact translated into the worst ever tenure in just one year of coming into power. BJP’s National Spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill has described the last one year as “Black era” for Punjab and Punjabis.
In a statement issued here today, Shergill stated that misgovernance, complete breakdown of the law and order machinery, unfulfilled poll promises, rampant drug menace, gang wars, illegal mining, liquor policy scam, worsening state economy, corruption, wasteful expenditure, promotion of VIP culture and zero accountability besides health and education sector in shambles, aptly sums up the one year dreadful tenure of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government.
Substantiating his claims, Shergill said that the ever worsening law and order could well be gauged from the fact that besides frequent incidents of murders, loot, extortion and ransom killings, there had been two RPG attacks on the police establishments and recently an unruly mob even captured a police station in Ajnala (Amritsar). He further said that astonishingly, since July 2022, there is no regular DGP in Punjab.
“The drug menace continues unabated notwithstanding the tall claims of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann that after coming to power, the AAP government will wipe out drugs from the state. Reports of easy availability of drugs and deaths due to drug overdose keep appearing in the media at regular intervals”, Shergill pointed out.
Coming down heavily on the Mann government for cheating with the people by making false poll promises, Shergill said that AAP government has miserably failed to fulfill its election promises, while adding, “By not giving Rs 1,000 per month to eligible 1.3 crore women, who have attained the age of 18 years, the government has betrayed the women community.”
Commenting on the dwindling state economy, the BJP Spokesperson said, “The fiscal state of affairs has been so bad that during its short span of tenure, AAP Government had borrowed a whopping Rs 30,986 crore to pay off the debt and at times even find it difficult to pay the salaries on time. Furthermore, the state debt burden will touch Rs 3.47 Lakh crores by end of fiscal year 2023-24.”
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister on his claims of adopting zero tolerance towards corruption, Shergill said that corruption continues unabated in Punjab – the glaring example of which is the recent arrest of AAP MLA Amit Rattan Kotfatta in an alleged bribery case. “I would like to ask Mann why the government has failed to take any stern action against its two former ministers and an MLA facing corruption charges. Why are they still in the party”, he questioned.
Talking about the industrial sector, Shergill said that because of the New Industrial Policy, certain clauses of which are “highly detrimental” for the existing industry as well as the deteriorating law and order situation, the Punjab industry is planning to migrate to other states. “Notwithstanding his claims of making the state ‘Dharna Mukt”; the farmers, teachers, various employees unions, doctors, unemployed youth and industrialists are holding protest demonstrations. To make things worse, the insensitive Mann government is resorting to brutal lathicharge on the protestors”, he said, while asserting that the public has completely lost confidence in this “anarchist” and “arrogant” government.
Holding Mann squarely responsible for wasting hundreds of crores on Advertisements, just as a fake image building exercise, Shergill said that Mann was exploiting Punjab’s resources to fulfill the political ambitions of his Boss Arvind Kejriwal. “Mann works on the dictates of the Delhi Durbar. In reality, Punjab has got an assistant of Kejriwal in the form of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann”, he said.
Quoting media reports, Shergill said that despite the tall claims of laying prime focus on the health and education sector, the ground situation is that hundreds of government schools are without required teaching staff. “Similarly, the AAP government has put the rural healthcare on ventilator by shutting down the rural dispensaries. Even for the 500 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’, the Department of Health and Family Welfare is not able to find requisite medical staff”, he added.
The BJP leader also said that it was extremely shocking that a party that vowed to end the ‘VIP Culture’ took a complete u-turn. “Mann’s cavalcade has 42 vehicles, which is even more than former CM’s including Parkash Singh Badal, Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi. Furthermore, recently, orders were issued that from now onwards 40 police personnel would accompany Mann’s wife during her visits to districts in the state”, pointed out Shergill, while terming all claims made by Mann before coming to power as a “sham”.
Shergill also said that not just failures but the AAP government remained mired in so many controversies as well. “From selecting outsiders from Punjab on plum posts including that of Rajya Sabha, the government is facing allegations of illegal mining and liquor policy scam”, he said, while drawing attention towards the fact that how Punjab had to face embarrassment, when the BMW Company denied Mann’s claims on a Germany trip that BMW was setting up a unit in Punjab.
