Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers and legislators had created their own mafias who were robbing the State of its natural resources including sand besides openly providing shelter to drug traffickers.
Addressing public gatherings in Jandiala Guru and Baba Bakala as part of the Punjab Bachao Yatra during the course of which he is receiving a tremendous response in both rural and urban areas, the SAD president said “people are coming up to me and telling me that AAP ministers and legislators are themselves indulging in illegal mining besides coming in the way of the arrest of drug smugglers”.
The SAD president made this statement after some women came up to him and told him that Jandiala Guru legislator and minister Harbhajan Singh had formed his own mafia which had resulted in a sharp hike in sand prices besides resulting in a large number of drug overdose deaths in the area. The women said sand which was available for around Rs 15,000 per trolley during the SAD tenure was now being sold for as much as Rs 60,000 per trolley. The women also appealed to the SAD president to take up the cause of families whose children had fallen prey to drug overdoses. Sukhbir Badal said it was shocking that the AAP government was harming the interests of the common man whom it claimed to represent by increasing the cost of home construction manifold.
Badal also condemned chief minister Bhagwant Mann for selling off Punjab’s interests to Delhi. He said it was shocking that Delhi minister Atishi sat in a meeting of the budget committee of the Punjab government recently. He said this remote control of the Punjab government by Kejriwal and his acolytes was witnessed earlier also when Kejriwal’s advisors attended cabinet meetings and also framed the excise policy of Punjab. “All this proves that the AAP high command is milking the resources of Punjab to spread the wings of AAP across the country to the detriment of Punjabis and their welfare”.
Badal also demanded that unwarranted taxation including increase in stamp duty on loans and on power of attorney transfers which has been done by amending the Indian Stamp Act and The Registration Bill be revoked immediately as they would make vehicles and homes more costly for the common man. He said the AAP government had nothing to show by way of development of infrastructure building and it seemed the new taxes were being imposed for financial publicity stunts as well as chartered plane travels of AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal.
The SAD president while addressing a meeting said representatives of the trade and industry had told him that the entire economy of the Majha region had been affected due to lawlessness, increase in power rates for the industrial sector as well as withdrawal of all incentives given to them during the erstwhile SAD government. He said a sharp increase in extortions and kidnappings had also resulted in the flight of industry to other States. Senior party leaders including Bikram Singh Majithia, Baljit Singh Jalalusman, Ranjit Singh Chhajalwadi, Satinderjit Singh Chhajalwadi and Rajwinder Singh Raja also accompanied the SAD president on the occasion.
