Capt Amarinder accuses Sukhbir Badal, Harsimrat Badal of misleading people

Chandigarh, July 3

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday accused SAD’s Sukhbir Badal and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of “misleading” people to promote their political agenda in the midst of the COVID crisis.

The concerted manner in which the Badal couple are running a campaign of “deceit and lies” has exposed their “shameless double standards”, the chief minister claimed.

The people of Punjab will not be taken in by the “political antics and crocodile tears” of the Akali leaders, who “looted” Punjab for a decade without sparing any thought for the problems of the masses, he further said.

The chief minister’s remarks came a day after the SAD chief alleged embezzlement of central rations by several Congressmen and favouritism in distribution of food grains and pulses to Congress supporters in the state.

Attacking Badal for his allegations, the CM asserted that the MLAs were supporting his government’s efforts to ensure that nobody goes hungry.

The MLAs are close to the people and are well-placed to help out those in immediate or urgent need, which is what they have been doing, Singh said in a statement here.

Pointing out that every Congressman in every part of the country was currently out helping people as part of the party’s concerted efforts to reach out to the needy in this hour of crisis, the CM said the Akalis could not relate to this as they had never seen beyond their own “personal interests”.

Singh ridiculed Badal’s allegations that the food grains received by the state government had not been distributed among the people, pointing out that even the figures cited by the SAD chief were totally incorrect, showing how pathetically removed he was from the reality.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, the wheat allocated to the state was 2,12,164 metric tonne, of which 1,99,091 MT had been distributed, while of the 10,800 MT ‘dal’ allocated, 10,305 MT had been distributed, a state government statement said.

Under the Atmanirbhar scheme of the Centre, wheat (per person) and dal (per family) was provided for 14.14 lakh people and the state, after grounding the wheat to flour, added dal to make it one kg per person and put in one kg sugar on its own, it added.

In fact, the state government had distributed 17 lakh packets to migrant labourers at a cost of Rs 69 crore from its own funds, with 10 kg ‘atta’, two kg dal and two kg sugar, the government said.

This data was sufficient to show that Badal’s claims and allegations on food grain distribution were “totally unsubstantiated and baseless”.

Taking on Harsimrat Kaur Badal on the issue of fuel VAT, the CM said if she was so concerned about the impact of the escalating fuel prices on the common man, why she was not pressuring the Union government to put a stop on the “uncontrolled” hike in prices of diesel and petrol. PTI