The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for spending crores of rupees and bringing Patiala to a standstill to “inaugurate” a ward of the Mata Kaushalya hospital after installing machinery supplied from the center during the Covid period.
Asserting that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was wasting crores of rupees to fool Punjabis that a special facility had been opened at the Mata Kaushalya hospital, SAD legal cell president Arshdeep Singh Keller said “The truth is that the building has only been given a fresh coat of paint and machinery supplied by the central government has been opened and installed after a gap of two years”. Mr Kler said even now nothing concrete has been done. “The AAP government has posted nine doctors at the hospital for the one-day visit of AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal instead of posting them permanently to the hospital”.
Asking the Chief Minister to explain this profligacy, Mr. Kler said “You cannot fool Punjabis by holding mega events to inaugurate re-painted buildings as you have done earlier also in the case of the so-called Schools of Eminence”. He also condemned the AAP government for bringing Patiala to a standstill to “host” Arvind Kejriwal and installing 660 hoardings in the city over a distance of 1.5 kilometers. “With Punjabis not ready to become a part of this hoax, government employees have been forced to attend the program and PRTC buses have been taken out from various routes to ferry the employees to the event site”.
Asking the Chief Minister whether he was deliberately lowering the status of Kejriwal, the SAD leader said “Such events were inaugurated by zila parishad level leaders during the SAD tenure in government”. He also gave the instance of how the foundation stone of the Mata Kaushalaya hospital which was demolished in 2011 to be rebuilt again was laid by the then Secretary of health and finally inaugurated by then Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal in 2014. “Then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal did not come to either of the events ‘, he said adding “It seems all protocol is being broken by inviting Kejriwal to district-level events under the AAP dispensation’ ‘.
Asking the government to deliver quality education and medical facilities to Punjabis instead of indulging in cheap publicity stunts, Mr Kler said “a teacher died when a school building collapsed in Baddowal. Hundreds of schools do not have adequate teachers. Similarly, the entire health system has been destroyed to make way for AAP Clinics which are also not functioning properly with a recent report disclosing how internet connection to 40 clinics had been cut due to nonpayment of bills. The AAP government does not have money to pay internet bills of its clinics but is spending crores of rupees to derive cheap publicity”.
The SAD leader also castigated the Chief Minister for falling under the pressure of Kejriwal and hiring a ten-seater jet aircraft solely for the election campaign of the latter. Giving details, he said “the geography of Punjab was such that any place could be reached by helicopter within one hour. There is no need for a ten-seater aircraft except to cater to the needs of Kejriwal who needs the same to indulge in electioneering in forthcoming assembly elections in various States for which Rs 70 crore are being wasted.
