AMRITSAR, Aug 7: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said today that the Congress Government in the State should not try to shift the onus of farm loan waiver on the Centre and should instead apologise to Punjabis for betraying them.
Addressing a rally at Baba Bakala near here, he said the Congress Government should not try to shift the blame on the Centre.
“The Congress party got lakhs of forms filled by farmers promising complete loan waiver to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore. Its finance minister Manpreet Badal however allocated only Rs 1,500 crore for this purpose in the State budget. Now the Government is saying it cannot release even this amount. I want to ask Manpreet Badal just one thing. Why did he cheat the farmers in this manner,” Sukhbir Badal said.
He claimed that Manpreet Badal knew the state of Punjab finances and also whether farmer loans could be waived or not.
“It is because of his false promise and inability to deliver that nearly 200 farmers have committed suicide in around 150 days,” Sukhbir Badal alleged.
If there was one thing the Congress Government has done in the last five months, it was inflicting repression on the poor and Dalits besides false cases against Akali workers, Sukhbir Badal said continuing his attack.
“I have been to five assembly constituencies as part of the party’s Jabar Virodhi Lehar and learnt that no one has been spared,” he said.
Young boys and even old women have been implicated in false cases, he claimed.
Stating that the SAD would not be cowed down by false cases, the SAD president asked party men to face repression boldly. He asked them to gherao police stations if they were implicated in false cases.
“We will also initiate cases against any police officer found indulging in vendetta at the instance of Congress leaders,” he added.
He alleged Congress leaders were selling sand at rates five to six times the price during the earlier SAD-BJP regime. (PTI)
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