Chandigarh: As we are aware, Capt. Amarinder Singh assumed office of Chief Minister on 16th March 2017 exactly one year ago today after the Congress party romped home with 77 seats, riding a wave based on lofty promises to the electorate. Unfortunately, a careful perusal of his government’s one year performance brings to fore a completely different Capt. Amarinder Singh, than what was marketed to the people by India’s professional political brand seller “P.K” (Prashant Kishor). This time around the once “Panniyan Da Rakha” (savior of waters) is a tired, beleaguered and a captive (controlled by babus) Chief Minister, inaccessible not only to the people but his own Minister’s and MLA’s.
Following are the charges framed by the principle opposition AAP-LIP alliance against the Congress led Punjab government, during the last 365 days.
Charge No. 1 – Great betrayal with farmers on debt waiver
Needless to mention, promise to write off the complete debt of farmers by Capt. Amarinder Singh was the most striking point in the election manifesto of the Congress party.
The ground reality is that as of now the Capt. government has waived off only Rs. 170 crore and Rs. 162.16 crore or a total Rs. 332.16 crore of the colossal debt of Rs. 1 lac crore, i.e. only 0.33 percent of the total loan has been written off in the said one year. This great betrayal of Capt. Amarinder Singh has completely dashed to ground the hopes of farmers and farm labourers, leading to escalation of suicides in Punjab. As on date as many as 374 farmers and “Khet-Mazdoors” have committed suicides, onus of which lies directly on the Chief Minister and his party, who had signed contractual agreement with farmers to own all their debt both institutional and non institutional.
Apart from his promise of debt waiver, Capt. Amarinder Singh has failed to ensure respectable marketing of cash crops such as potatoes, cotton, maize etc., further adding to the woes of farmers. The MSP (SAP) of sugarcane in Punjab of Rs. 310 is Rs. 10 per quintal lower than Haryana, besides 50 crore arrears still due to farmers of their last crop.
“AAP-LIP” charge Capt. Amarinder Singh of grand betrayal with the farmers of Punjab and hold him directly responsible for their suicides.”
Charge No. 2 – Perjury committed in the name of control of drugs
Our memories are vivid of Capt. Amarinder Singh holding a “Gutka-Sahib” close to his head faced towards Takhat Damdama Sahib, promising to eradicate drugs within 4 weeks of assuming power. The ground reality is that there’s not an iota of difference between the approach of SAD-BJP and Congress governments. Both have filled up the jails with thousands of petty drug addicts, while drug mafia rule the roost in the state. Congress MLA from Amargarh Mr. Surjit Singh Dhiman is on record to state, that drugs are available in every nook and corner of Punjab abundantly. We haven’t witnessed any increase in number of drug de-addiction centers or large scale drug addicts making a beeline to drug rehabilitation centers, something that should have happened if the drug menace had been eradicated.
Capt. Amarinder Singh has deliberately refused to initiate any inquiry or proceedings against Bikram Majithia known for connections with international drug cartels through Satpreet “Satta”, Pindi etc. of Canada, despite repeated demands made by over 40 Congress MLA’s.
The much hyped drug-arms related proceedings against Inderjit Singh an ASI arrested by STF haven’t moved an inch thereafter, can we believe that merely one ASI was the kingpin of trans border drug smuggling?
Recently Gen. TS Shergill the Advisor to the Chief Minister had to face the wrath of the people during a visit to Ludhiana, where he was told that it is easier to get “Chitta” than to get sugar in Punjab.
Trashing the fictitious claims of government, national newspaper The Indian Express carried a full page story dated 12.03.2018 wherein according to a case study conducted by them 16 families have come forward to admit, that their children have been killed by drugs during the last one year.
AAP-LIP charge Capt. Amarinder Singh of “perjury” committed by him in the court of god, for making a false promise to eradicate drugs under oath.
Charge No. 3 – Failure to implement its poll promise of “ Har Ghar Naukri”
Capt. Amarinder Singh and his government have hopelessly failed to implement their star promise of providing one job per family. In order to hoodwink the youth, the Punjab government is organizing “job fairs” to mischievously show case its poll promise. Needless to mention, these job fairs are merely campus placements of youth by private companies and the government has nothing to do with these private sector jobs.
The ground reality is that thousands of field jobs, such as doctors, teachers, patwari’s, pharmacists, veterinary doctors, agriculture inspectors, clerks etc. are lying vacant but the government has made no sincere efforts to fill these jobs. On the contrary livelihood of thousands of families has definitely been jeopardized by the government’s decision to close down thermal plants, sewa kendra’s, downsizing 800 government schools, merging anganwari children in pre nursery schools thus threatening the future of 84,000 anganwari workers etc.
Instead of providing jobs the Capt. government is unleashing tyranny upon 20,000 RMSA, SSA and computer teachers drawing Rs. 50,000 PM salaries, to work at Rs. 10,300 PM salary for 3 years, if they want their old jobs regularized. Is this the way of implementing its poll promise of “Har Ghar Naukri”?
The stark reality is that more than 22 lac youth continue to be jobless in Punjab, as per study conducted by CRRID.(Center for Research in Rural and Industrial Development).
Therefore, AAP-LIP charge Capt. and his government of hoodwinking, cheating and misleading the youth of Punjab in the name of job fairs, in order to hide their failure to provide employment.
Charge No. 4 – 100 percent tolerance to corruption instead of his promise of zero tolerance to corruption
Although Capt. Amarinder Singh promised to effectively deal with the menace of corruption by giving the slogan of “zero tolerance to corruption”, but in reality it is 100 percent patronization and tolerance of corruption in Punjab.
The biggest example of promoting corruption was involvement of tainted former Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh in the infamous mining scandal that rocked the state. Despite voluminous and clinching evidence of involvement of his blue eyed boy Minister Rana Gurjeet, Capt. Amarinder Singh continued to shield and protect him for 8 months in the sleazy mining trade. He had to finally bow to public pressure and show the door to Rana Gurjeet Singh.
Capt. Amarinder Singh has not allowed the Vigilance Bureau to investigate to logical conclusion the two massive corruption scandals of irrigation contractor Gurinder Singh and PUDA/GMADA scamster Chief Engineer Surinderpal Singh @ Pehalwan. Both Gurinder Singh and Pehalwan Surinderpal arrested by the VB for over Rs. 1,000 crore corruption scandals, are known henchmen of Sukhbir Badal and Akali Ministers. But the investigations into such mega corruption scams have come to halt with their arrests, is it imaginable that a Chief Engineer and a small time irrigation contractor could have “looted” the state of thousands of crores and their political masters had no knowledge?
AAP-LIP charges that corruption is rampant in Punjab right from top to bottom as it was during the last 10 years of SAD-BJP misrule. People have been looted in all government offices with impunity and in broadaylight.
Charge No. 5- Capt. Amarinder Singh and the Badal family playing a friendly match
AAP-LIP charge Capt. Amarinder Singh of a complete handshake and compromise with the Badal family on the issue of corruption. Since the Badals at the fag end of their tenure had filed cancellation reports in the Ludhiana City Center and Amritsar Improvement Trust corruption cases of Capt. Amarinder Singh, he is now paying them back by neither initiating any inquiry into the ill gotten wealth of the Badal family, nor seriously investigating beyond a point the above stated corruption scandals as the leads would have reached Sukhbir Badal.
It is because of this “quid pro qua” that the transport, PTC tv, cable network, hotel trade etc. of the junior Badal is even more flourishing now.
Similarly, Capt. Amarinder Singh is now shielding and protecting Bikram Majithia for his involvement in the drug trade. It is common knowledge that although more than 40 Congress MLA’s had demanded action against Bikram Majithia but Capt. Amarinder Singh has turned complete blind eye to their demand.
Charge No. 6 – Inability to curb mining mafia in the state
Capt. Amarinder Singh has miserably failed to curb mining mafia in the state. Despite the fact that the infamous mining scandal involving Rana Gurjeet Singh erupted shortly after the Congress coming to power, Capt. Amarinder Singh tried his best to protect his tainted blue eyed Minister for more than 8 months, by forming the bogus Narang commission with the pre meditated agenda to give a clean chit to him. Emboldened by this erroneous act of the Chief Minister mining mafia spread its wings throughout the state during the last one year and rampantly robbed the natural resource of the state of thousands of crores.
It was after the issue snowballed into a major controversy that reached the door steps of the Congress high command, that Capt. Amarinder Singh woke up from his deep slumber to make a tweet from his helicopter. There are intelligence reports lying on the table of Capt., indicting more than a dozen Congress MLA’s and a Minister of their involvement in the sleazy trade. Serious charges of benami investment by Minister Charanjit Singh Channi have also come to light but the Chief Minister is yet to take concrete action on the six mining sites tweeted by him recently.
Charge No. 7- Great disparity and discrimination with the employees of the state
Like all the other sections of Punjab employees too are facing the wrath of Congress government. Congress in its manifesto had promised to regularize all employees working on contractual basis for the past many years. Instead of giving them permanent jobs, Capt. Amarinder Singh has virtually snatched the livelihood of more than 2000 employees of the thermal plants, 84,000 Anganwari workers are on strike, those working in the Sewa Kendra’s have been left in the lurch.
The biggest cruel joke in the name of regularization is now being played with 20,000 teachers working under the RMSA, SSA, completer teachers and Adarsh schools to work at a meager Rs. 10,300 PM for three years incase they want permanent jobs. Besides discrimination the Punjab government faltered many times to pay salaries and pensions to employees forcing them to resort to “Dharna” for their basic right. They feel cheated on the issues of increase in their DA installments and implementation of the latest pay commission, to bring them at par with the central government employees.
Charge No. 8 – Betrayal with “Dalits”, Backward classes and other weaker sections
The Congress government has very mischievously discriminated against the Dalits, BC’s etc. by imposing conditions on the facility of 200 units of free electricity granted to them for the last many years. Instead of giving them more relief in view of inflation, the government has notified that if the load of the poor family exceeds 1 Kilowatt and 3000 units per year, they will have to pay for the free 200 units as well.
Similarly, the government has diverted and misused hundred of crores of pre matric and post matric scholarships, meant for poor students belonging to SC and other weaker sections.
Punjab government has also denied the central government facility of free education to Dalit students in private schools under the Right to Education Act 2009, by making it conditional for them to first obtain a NOC from a government school, due to which not a single child of the poor could avail quality free education.
Charge No. 9 – Capt. government a government of the babus, for the babus and by the babus
The Capt. Amarinder Singh government outwardly appears to be democratic but the fact is that a very small coterie of officers run and control its day to day functioning. Given his feudal nature Capt. Amarinder Singh depends on babus than on elected representatives. Having failed to expand his cabinet even after passage of one year, Capt. Amarinder Singh depends upon a very top heavy Chief Minister office (CMO) bureaucratic staff, who have the final words in over 40 departments held by them.
AAP-LIP charge this government a “government of the babus, for the babus and by the babus.”
Charge No. 10 – Capt. Amarinder Singh responsible for further adding to bankruptcy of Punjab
As we are aware, Punjab is already under a colossal debt of Rs. 2.5 lac crore unable to pay salaries to its employees, unable to honour its social welfare schemes but Capt. Amarinder Singh in order to reward his near and dear ones has appointed an army of 19 Advisors and OSD’s, bestowing upon them status of Cabinet and State Ministers. The said appointments could have been avoided as Punjab already has a very top heavy bureaucratic structure, with 10 Chief Secretary scale officers, dozens of Financial Commissioners, scores of Administrative Secretaries, 6 DGP rank officers etc. These officers have specially been trained to advise and run the governments, something the private army of Advisor’s of the Chief Minister cannot do. The Minister might have done away with VIP culture on paper but the kind of cavalcades and the security paraphernalia that the CM, his Ministers and other defeated Congress leaders like Mrs. Bhathal enjoy is a big burden on the public exchequer. Similarly, as per RTI information, CM, Ministers and the Advocate General have splurged crores of public money to renovate their already posh government houses and offices.
Therefore AAP-LIP charge Capt. Amarinder Singh of being “penny wise and pound foolish” and further adding to the already critical and ruined financial state of Punjab.
Charge No. 11 – Inability of the current government to end “Mafia-Raj” in the state
While in opposition Congress during the last 10 years of Badal rule, had accused it of promoting different kind of mafia in Punjab and vowed to end it once in power. Unfortunately, the only difference today is that Akali sponsored mafia has taken a back seat and Congress leaders have come to the fore, to hijack the different illegal trades of mining, real estate, cable network, liquor, truck unions, “Goonda” tax etc.
Charge No. 12 – Capt. Amarinder Singh responsible for carrying forward the illegitimate legacy of “Halqa-Incharges”, initiated by the erstwhile Badal government
It is an open secret now, that Capt. Amarinder Singh has given his formal nod to the state machinery to recognize the illegal nomenclature of “Halqa-Incharge” or defeated Congress candidates. All officers in constituencies represented by opposition party MLA’s are appointed on the recommendations of such defeated Congress leaders. These “Halqa-Incharges” are discharging all duties and functions of elected representatives, besides collecting monthly funds from officers posted in their assembly constituencies.
Charge No. 13 – Capt. Amarinder Singh strengthening politicization of police and civil administration in the state and through them resorting to political vendetta
Following the footsteps of his friendly opponents i.e. SAD-BJP, Capt. Amarinder Singh has further strengthened politicization of the police force and civil administration. By doing so he is misusing the state machinery to intimidate and threaten the political opponents of his government. There have been many reported incidents of police high handedness and vendetta politics during the last one year of Congress rule, besides rigging and hijacking of recently conducted local bodies elections in Punjab. The Leader of Opposition too has been targeted and victimized in a maliciously false and frivolous drug case.
AAP-LIP charges Capt. Amarinder Singh with carrying forward the legacy of previous Badal government to severely politicize the state machinery and use it for partisan purposes.
Charge No. 14 – Capt. Amarinder Singh has deliberately ignored the basic issues of a common man during the last one year
Education, healthcare, employment, law and order, over 6000 deaths due to road accidents, welfare of weaker sections, crime against women, environment, development works seem nowhere on the agenda of the current government. There are no teachers in schools, no doctors in hospitals, not a single project or any developmental activity has been witnessed in the state during the last one year.
Charge No. 15 – Capt. Amarinder Singh has utterly failed to honour other key promises made by his party in the election manifesto
The other key promises of 50 lac smart phones to the youth, increase of old age pensions to Rs. 2500 PM, increase of Shagun scheme to Rs. 51,000, free houses to the poor, “Apni Gaddi Apna Rozgar”, Rs. 2500 PM unemployment allowance etc. have all gone unhonoured in the past one year.
To sum up, Capt. Amarinder Singh is behaving like the erstwhile king Nero of Rome, “who played the flute while Rome was burning.” Similarly, Capt. Amarinder Singh is often seeing partying and enjoying in cozy locations of Shimla hills, Delhi or London and barely has time for the burning issues facing Punjab. He has not visited ground zero of the state for more than a dozen times during the past one year.
Capt. Amarinder Singh is only carrying forward corrupt and extremely partisan legacy of the Badals. Punjab has witnessed no change for better besides change of colour of turbans and color of party flags. Punjabi’s continue to be the sufferers and victims of dirty and decayed politics of traditional parties.
The decline of Punjab as a state can be judged from two simple parameters :-
- The net asset value of Punjab has depreciated by more than 50 percent during the last few years. Our ordinary agricultural land which had shot up to approximately Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 lac per acre, has no buyers even at Rs. 15 to Rs. 20 lac per acre today, so is the case of urban real estate value.
- Sensing an extreme bleak and dark future, lacs of valuable human resource of Punjab has begun migrate to different countries of the world for a better life, which shows that there is no hope nor scope for the youth in Punjab.
Therefore, the principle opposition alliance of AAP-LIP charges the Capt. Amarinder Singh government with treason, treachery and cheating the electorate of Punjab by making false promises merely for attaining power. AAP-LIP exhorts the people of Punjab to wake up and rectify the “Himalayan” blunder committed by them to handover to a leader and a party known to be fountainheads of corruption, nepotism and favouritism.