Mehraj (Bathinda), December 1 : Punjab Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal today exhorted the people of state to join hands for routing out the Congress party from political arena in coming state assembly elections, as its discriminatory policies were responsible for bringing the state on brink of economic disaster.
Kicking start the election campaign of his party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) by organizing a mammoth rally here today, the Chief Minister said that the single point agenda of the Congress party during its five decade long rule in the country had been to ruin the state by drafting the anti Punjab policies. He said that Congress have always meted out step-motherly treatment with the state a testimony to which is that in last five decades no large industrial project had been set up by the Union government in the state. Apart from it he said that the Congress leadership had maneuvered to destroy the agriculture of the state by increasing the cost of the agricultural inputs and by exorbitant hike in the prices of petroleum products but on the other hand the prices of food products are fixed in non remunerative manner, which increases the agony of farmers. The Chief Minister further said that the result of all this has been that the farmer of state who was responsible for giving food security to the nation is now on the verge of starvation. Mr Badal said Centre’s gross discrimination and apathetic attitude towards Punjab had virtually reduced our position to beggars. “Owing to the anti-farmer policies of the Congress led Union government the farmer of state is living a miserable life due to heavy burden of loans” he added.
Continuing his attack against the Congress for ruining the state, Mr Badal said that the Congress had always played with the sentiments of the Punjabis and Sikhs by irrelevantly meddling in their social, economic, political and even the religious affairs. He said that the Congress was solely responsible for depriving the state from its capital and from its due share of the river waters, due to which the Punjabis would never forgive them. Mr Badal further said that Congress had inflicted deep wound on Sikhs by engineering attack on their holiest Shrine of Sri Darbar Sahib through Operation Blue Star and by the Sikh Massacre of 1984. Mr Badal said that both these incidents would ever remind us about the tyranny and anti Punjab stance of this party. The Chief Minister said that even today the Union government formulates the policies in such manner so that the state of Punjab should not get its benefit adding that the basic aim behind it is to derail the development of the state.
Lashing out at the Congress led UPA government at the Centre, Mr Badal said that due to the misrule of this government the social maladies like unemployment, corruption, poverty, inflation and illiteracy have increased manifolds. He said that Congress party was neck deep in rampant corruption and misdeeds adding that scams and scandals were the order of the day in Congress led UPA government. The Chief Minister further said that by scams like 2G and CWG the Union Ministers of Congress have amassed huge wealth, which could have duly helped in ensuring development of the country for many coming decades.
Listing out the achievements of SAD-BJP government in the state, the Chief Minister said towards their firm commitment to perpetuate the rich cultural heritage for the coming generations, the SAD-BJP government has erected state of the art memorials wiz Virasat-e-Khalsa at Sri Anandpur Sahib, War Memorials of Chota Ghallughara at Kahnuwan and Wadda Ghallughara at Kup Rohira along with at Fateh Burj at village Chapar Chiri in the memory of legendary warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. He further said that unparalleled development has taken place in the state especially in sectors of Health, education and basic Infra structure adding that due to untiring efforts of their government the state would soon become a power surplus state. He also said that the for the first time in the history of state a whopping budget has been kept for giving facilities under the social security to the poor people. Likewise he said that for the first time in history of the state Rs 4000 crore has been spent on the providing basic civic amenities to the cities across the state. The Chief Minister also exhorted the people of state to rise above the narrow and parochial values of groups and political considerations for extending support and vote to SAD-BJP alliance for continuity of an era of unprecedented development in the state.
Prominent amongst those who addressed the rally included Former Union Minister Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, Lok MP from Faridkot Mrs Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan and Former Punjab Minister and SAD leader Mr Sikander Singh Malooka.
Earlier the Chief Minister also inaugurated 66KV Power Sub Station at village Mehraj and laid down the foundation stone of 66KV Power Sub Station at village Bhodipura. He also announced to set up a college for girls in village Mehraj.
