Chandigarh, April 18: Lambasting the Union Minister for trying brazenly to mislead the people, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday categorically rejected Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s claims of central relief being provided to the state on account of COVID-19.
“Your information is absolutely incorrect,” said Captain Amarinder, in response to Harsimrat’s series of tweets in which she claimed that “Punjab received funds & grains to deal with COVID-19 crisis.”
“The state has received absolutely no money from the central government in its fight against COVID-19,” said the Chief Minister, terming Harsimrat’s remarks as another manifestation of her compulsive habit of lying and being ill-informed about even the basic facts relating to her own state.
Asking her to cross-check her facts before shooting out of her mouth, the Chief Minister said instead of using her office as a central minister to help out her own state, Harsimrat was shamelessly indulging in petty politics based on blatant falsehoods.
“You should be ashamed of spreading such false propaganda on such a major issue,” said Captain Amarinder to the Akali leader, pointing out that a time when political parties rising above petty considerations were joining hands across the country to fight this unprecedented crisis, including in Punjab, Harsimrat was using it to flagrantly promote her political agenda.
“What are you doing sitting there if you can’t fight for Punjab and its people,” the Chief Minister asked Harsimrat, lashing out at her for trying to undermine the state government’s efforts instead of supporting it in the midst of this crisis.
Nailing Harsimrat’s lies, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Rs. 2,366 crore referred to by her on the GST count was Punjab’s money, in lieu of the GST owed to the state against arrears. And even there, Rs 4400 crore of the state’s money was still pending with the government, he added. “You couldn’t even get our own pending arrears released, leave alone get us the much-needed relief package to fight the COVID battle,” he quipped.
Even the other amounts mentioned by Harsimrat in her tweets were normal dues of the state, against various routine heads, “which have nothing to do with the COVID battle,” said the Chief Minister, expressing shock at the Akali leader’s attempts to lie her way out to cover up for her own failure to get any support for Punjab in this difficult hour.
As opposed to the 10,000 tonnes claimed by Harsimrat, the state had received only 42 tonnes of pulses so far, which was a joke considering the state’s requirement, the Chief Minister pointed out. He recalled that he himself had suggested that the Centre should arrange for 6 months of ration for the poor in all the states.
In fact, the Centre had even turned a blind eye to his suggestion to expeditiously lift the surplus grains lying in Punjab to free the storage space for the Rabi crop, Captain Amarinder said. “But they prefer to let the grains rot, and get the state government to pay for the losses, instead of using it to feed the poor and needy people around the country,” he added
Leave alone a relief package for COVID, the Centre was yet to even clear the pending bonus for farmers and insurance for employees, the Chief Minister noted.
Captain Amarinder outright condemned Harsimrat for her pathetic attempt to play politics over the issue and divert attention from the failure of her Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was a part of the coalition at the Centre, to contribute in any way to the state’s efforts to fight the current crisis and provide relief to its people.
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