Amritsar, February 6 – SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal blamed the Aam Aadmi party was pushing Punjab back into the age of darkness by bankrupting the state power utility besides refusing to give any incentive to the industrial sector.
Addressing a press conference here today, the SAD president said the AAP government had not generated a single unit of power during its tenure. “It is simultaneously not paying subsidy due to PSPCL which is bankrupting the power utility”. Asserting that part of the power needs of the state were being served by two thermal plants of Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo which Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced to close, he said ‘ these thermal plants supply power to the State @ Rs 2.80- per unit. The shortfall in demand is being filled by purchasing power at Rs 8 to 10 per unit he said adding the situation would get worse in summer. “This will threaten the paddy crop besides dealing a crippling blow to the industrial sector”.
Asserting that the State industry was on a downward spiral, Badal said, industrialists are already leaving the State as they were fed up with gangster culture and open extortion. He said the failure of the AAP government to address the concern of the industry through the new industrial policy had compounded matters. “No new incentive has been given in the new industrial policy as neighbouring States are providing more incentives Punjab industry is shifting to Uttar pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir” he added. Badal said in Stark contrast during erstwhile SAD government the industrial sector received a fillip by creation of the Invest Punjab department as well as concrete incentives like 100% refund on GST. He said the manner in which the State had been made power surplus alongwith creation of world class road and air network during the SAD tenure had given confidence to the Punjab growth story.
The SAD president also highlighted how chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was trying to mislead the Punjabis by indulging in a name changing spree to show the government had done something.”The truth is that the AAP government has gone in for a massive exercise to repaint and renovate the government buildings to establish so called Aam Aadmi Clinics”. He said that 100 Sewa Kendras were converted to Mohalla clinics and now 540 rural dispensaries had been converted to Aam Aadmi clinics. ” The government is now also in process of changing the nomenclature of the Meritorious schools established by Parkash Singh Badal “he added.
Asserting that such gimmicks accompanied by pasting of the Chief Minister’s photograph on government buildings would not benefit Punjabis, he said it was condemnable that the AAP government had not come up with a single development work in the last nine months. ” No money has been spent on Capital expenditure even state revenue has fallen short from planned target”, he added.
However, speaking about the manner in which Gurmeet Ram Raheem was being given preferential treatment by the Haryana BJP government , he said ” parole is given for a limited period for a specific reason. It cannot be given repeatedly to fulfil the political agenda of the BJP in Haryana”, he added.
