Hoshiarpur: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the Congress legislators’-officer nexus was responsible for rampant illegal mining in Punjab and it was because of this that chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s orders were not being obeyed by the civil and police administration.
Addressing a huge Pol Khol rally here, the SAD president said the chief minister had called a meeting of deputy commissioners and district police chiefs some time back and asked them to ensure no illegal mining took place in their respective areas. “Despite this illegal mining is flourishing and even the CM witnessed the same recently. This means the legislators are not allowing officers to take any action against illegal mining”, he added.
Speaking about the forthcoming budget session, Mr Badal said the Congress government was running away from debate because it did not have anything to show for its one year rule. “The government knows it has failed on each and every front be it loan waiver for farmers or employment to youth. That is why it is holding an effective six day budget session. It knows it has not implemented provisions made in the last budget. It is getting ready to present another false document which will also remain unimplemented”.
Speaking about the functioning of the government, the SAD president said the government had played another fraud by announcing that it would release old age pension and shagun benefits from January this year. “An impression has been given that the entire backlog from January 2017 will be cleared. But the reality is that the government has decided to forgo giving benefits for one full year and aims to start them afresh from January 2018”. He said similarly the government had promised jobs to youth. Forget giving new jobs it has asked 15,000 teachers working on contract who are getting a salary between Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per month to take a salary of Rs 10,300 a month to get their services regularized”.
Punjab BJP president Vijay Sampla while speaking on the occasion said the Congress government had not even released the central grant sent to it for giving scholarships to SC students. He said the State finances were being mismanaged in such a manner that electric connections of schools were disconnected. “School children are even being denied mid day meals”, he added.
Former minister Bikram Singh Majithia while speaking on the occasion said the Kandi area had witnessed massive development during SAD-BJP tenure. He said the Kandi area used to witness 24 hour power supply during SAD-BJP rule. “Now orders are being issued to reduce it to eight hours. Even domestic consumers are being burdened with fixed charges which were never done earlier”, he added.