Amit Shah targets Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi over mafia

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana/Patiala, February 13

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today promised to free Punjab of drugs and mafias in five years, if the BJP-led NDA government was formed in the state.

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Addressing an election rally in Ludhiana, Shah hit out at Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for “ruining” Punjab. He sought votes in the name of work done by PM Narendra Modi.

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Wearing a saffron turban and a matching shawl, he said, “To check drug trade, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) cells will be set up in all districts in the state. Besides this, NCB regional centres will be set up in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar.” He said successive governments in the state compromised with security, made Punjab a haven of drugs and left peasants and industrialists to fend for themselves.

Recalling slain PM Rajiv Gandhi’s statement that earth shakes when a big tree falls, Shah blamed the Congress for engineering the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. “Modi gave justice to the riot-hit, spent Rs 300 crore on celebrating Guru Gobind Singh’s 350th birth anniversary and opened Kartarpur Corridor costing Rs 120 crore,” he said. Terming conversions as another “big problem” in Punjab, he said, “Both Channi and Kejriwal cannot stop this, but the BJP will throw out all those involved in this illegal practice.”

He said, “Can Channi, whose nephew was caught in an illegal sand mining case, check mafias; or Kejriwal, who turned Delhi into a liquor city, eradicate drugs? Can the person (Channi), who could not ensure a safe route for the PM, secure the state and its people? Channi has no moral right to continue as CM after the PM’s security breach.”

At a rally in Patiala, Shah was joined by former CM Capt Amarinder Singh and SAD (Sanyukt) leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.

Shah said, “Our government opened the Kartarpur Corridor, announced December 26 as Veer Bal Diwas in memory of younger Sahibzadas, removed names of 312 Sikhs from the blacklist and safely brought ‘birs’ of Guru Granth Sahib from Afghanistan.”

Capt Amarinder Singh, meanwhile, said only the collaborative governments in Punjab and at the Centre could rid the state of its debt. “We need industry to generate employment. Funds for it can be provided by the Centre only,” he said. Dhindsa said Punjab, which was facing debt besides witnessing a decline in agricultural income, needed a government that could work in collaboration with the Centre.

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