Punjab Congress asks Akalis not to justify their faults

Chandigarh: The Punjab Congress on Wednesday asked Akalis to stop justifying their faults and bad mouthing the Congress-led government on the issue of holistic development of the state across all sectors, as the dark reality of their decade-long rule, which has been unmasked by the Union urban development, housing & urban poverty alleviation ministry.

The local government minister, Punjab, Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu disclosed that the Union minister Mr Venkaiah Naidu in his communication to the chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has pointed out glaring irregularities of financial nature in the matter pertaining to the release of central and state share of funds to the urban local bodies (ULBs).

Putting previous government firmly in the dock on basis of facts, the minister said that as per the communication, not only the state’s share was witheld, but there was also a delay in releasing Central Government’s share, making it an anomaly of a grave nature. The minister elaborated that as per the stand of the Union ministry, the recruitment of persons with professional expertise in ULBs is being funded by it but the state government did not fill up the positions that call for an explanation by the previous regime, which often takes recourse to moral high ground on every issue and try to browbeat progress centric agenda of the Congress Government.

Bringing more acts of omission and commission by the previous regime to the fore, Mr. Sidhu said that although the Akalis kept harping on smart city mission, the fact was that no project has been tendered so far, while AMRUT mission is in the midst of glitches, apart from only one ULB being declared ODF putting much touted Swachchh Bharat mission in jeopardy.

Taking the attack right into the Opposition ranks, Mr. Sidhu said that with these startling revelations coming to the fore, with what face would the SAD-BJP go to the people as it is the Union government led by the BJP, which has landed a severe punch to the combine.

Severely castigating SAD-BJP, the minister said that the former chief minister and former deputy chief minister should come forth and answer to the public about their hollow claims in the name of development. He said that the people of Punjab would never forgive the unholy alliance for this huge betrayal and bartering away the interests of the state.