LUDHIANA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal om Sunday dubbed the Punjab Chief Minster Bhagwant Mann and the Panchayat Raj Minister Laljit Singh Bullar as “partners in crime” in their botched up assault on grass-root democracy through dissolution of and election to Panchayats in the state.
"The Chief Minister is now acting like a coward and by trying to hide by officers as scapegoats. The fact is that the entire process of dissolution of Panchayats to be followed by election was initiated, piloted and signed by Bhagwant Mann through the concerned minister Laljit Singh Bhullar. The IAS officers had merely presented the concerned file for "perusal" and necessary orders by the Chief Minister. The officers had specifically noted on the file itself that it was being sent “as desired by the Chief Minister," said the SAD president
Badal said that the minister deserved dismissal as he was responsible for steering the decision to dissolve the Panchayats from the beginning to end, and the CM owed an apology to the people before resigning on moral grounds, as all this exercise was carried out with the complete knowledge and assent of chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
The SAD president, who was addressing newsmen during the course of holding several meetings in Ludhiana, said the Panchayati Raj minister called a meeting on July 26 with the clear cut agenda of dissolving the panchayats. He said following this on August 2 the minister also held two meetings with senior officers and in the presence of a representative of the Advocate General’s office following which a decision was taken to dissolve the panchayats.
"In the light of these facts it is clear that the Panchayati Raj minister steered this decision with the ascent of the chief minister. If anyone needs to be punished following the adverse notice taken by the Punjab and Haryana high court it is the Panchayati Raj minister and the chief minister and not the two bureaucrats who have been suspended", he said.
Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was looting the state exchequer to fund the party’s campaign nationwide, Badal said: "the Rs 750 crore annual advertising budget is being used for this purpose only".
He said in stark contrast the government had released a paltry Rs 186 crore to farmers as compensation for the destruction of their paddy crop when the damage had been pegged at Rs 10,000 crore.
Speaking of the recent tussle between the Governor and the chief minister, Badal said the genesis of the problem lay in the fact that the chief minister had not heeded the report of the Governor that drugs were being sold from liquor vends in the city.
He said when the government did not take any action in the case; the Governor forwarded the case to the Narcotics Control Bureau who sealed 66 liquor vends after recovery of synthetic drugs from them. “These liquor vends have subsequently been reopened under the same management which speaks volumes about the patronage being given to the drug mafia by the AAP government”.
The SAD president said Punjab was going back by decades due to the incompetence of the AAP government, while citing the flight of industry from the State to Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country.
"Despite all this, the chief minister is content to drive his boss Arvind Kejriwal across the length and breadth of the country on the Punjab government aircraft", he said.
