As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government completed six months in power in Punjab on Friday, it came under severe criticism from the Opposition parties, who blamed the government for poor governance, resulting in total disappointment on all fronts.
“Six months of poor governance, hollow promises, and zero development. Corruption touching its peak, voices of anti-incumbency pouring right and left. The AAP has failed on all fronts, with the public losing faith and confidence in the government. The dark` Era of Dirty Politics’ has just begun,” said Punjab’s Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said, “It has been an all-round failure, whether in law and order, health or education.”
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the AAP government’s core promises still remained unfulfilled. He said the promise of ₹1,000 monthly allowance for women had not been implemented yet. Also, more than 35,000 contractual employees were still awaiting the regularisation of their services, he said. “The government had promised to improve the law and order situation but it has only worsened. The drug menace and overdose deaths have increased. Even the promises which were being touted as having been implemented like 300 units of free power per month to all the households were also being run with riders taking a large number of people out of the scheme,” he said.
Accusing the AAP of betraying the farming community, Mr. Badal demanded the immediate release of ₹1,500 per acre incentive promised to the farmers going in for the DSR (direct seeding) technique for rice cultivation. “While the AAP government had spent crores on advertisements, it had not released ₹25 crore due to the farmers who had gone in for the direct seeding (DSR) technique of rice on the advice of the government. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had urged the farmers to grow ‘Moong’ pulse and promised to procure the entire crop but purchased only 10% of the same. Scores of farmers had to sell their Moong crop at throwaway prices,” he said.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh termed the AAP government’s six months in power as a complete disaster for Punjab. “Both the mining and liquor policies have exposed the AAP government on how corrupt it has been in the six months. As against dismantling the liquor and the mining mafias the AAP government has in fact given more strength to the mafias. The economy of the State has gone from bad to worse as the employees are not getting their salaries on time and many welfare schemes are stuck due to the shortage of funds,” he alleged.
