Adampur (Jalandhar), December 31: Former minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged the people to elect a stable government which could safeguard their regional aspirations even as she asserted that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was the sole party which had steadfastly stood up for the State and its people.
Addressing a massive gathering here in favour of SAD candidate Pawan Kumar Tinu, the former union minister said all other political parties and fronts would be mere rubber stamps of the Dilli Durbar.
“Only the SAD has a track record of safeguarding the regional aspirations of Punjabis. We are committed to safeguarding the interests of all sections of society and taking everyone along on the path of progress”.
Harsimrat Badal also led a scathing attack on chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal on the occasion. She said despite being in power for more than three months and making one announcement after another, nothing had changed on the ground.
She said the chief minister had announced that 5 marla plots would be given to the poor, that 36,000 contractual employees would be regularized and compensation would be given to cotton farmers whose crops had been destroyed by pest attack.
“I have been asking the people wherever I go if any of these promises have been fulfilled. They say that no plot has been given to any poor person. Forget regularizing 36,0000 employees, even one employee has not been regularized”.
She said similarly cotton farmers were promised fair compensation but now various terms and conditions had been imposed on the award which was practically giving them nothing.
Badal also disclosed that even though the Congress government had not done anything for the people, it had accumulated a debt of Rs one lakh crore during the last five years. “This despite the fact that the people were taxed heavily, their power bills were hiked multiple times and they had to pay the most VAT on petrol and diesel as compared to other States”.
Speaking about Arvind Kejriwal, Badal said the Delhi chief minister wanted to usurp power in Punjab through hook or by crook. She said despite the fact that no woman in Delhi had been given even Rs one per month by the AAP government, the party was promising to give Rs 1,000 per month to women in Punjab.
He said similarly the 200 units per bill cycle scheme was a failure in Delhi and did not benefit the people because they were charged the complete bill if they consumed even one unit more than 200 units per bill cycle.
“Despite this, Kejriwal is not promising 300 units per bill cycle free to Punjabis”. She also recounted how Kejriwal had a history of being anti-Punjab. She said the AAP Convener had taken an anti-Punjab stance on the issue of SYL canal and had also advocated closing down the thermal plants of Punjab besides calling for registering cases against farmers for burning stubble.
Badal also visted Dera Ballan along with Pawan Tinu and paid her respects to Sant Niranjan Das Maharaj. The Dera Committee apprised her that the facility of sending devotees free of cost to Varanasi to visit the Janamsthal of Guru Ravi Das ji had been discontinued during the Congress regime.
The committee urged her to restart this facility once the SAD-BSP government was formed to which she agreed and gave an assurance to the committee in this regard.
Badal also visited the residence of Kisan Andolan martyr Arshdeep Singh at Mansurpur Wadala and commiserated with the family members who informed her that no one from the government had visited them and that they had not received any financial assistance.
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