CHANDIGARH, January 29: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today appealed to the voters of Punjab to vote carefully and cautiously to ensure that the state got a good and clean government which is not corrupt and which does not resort to vendetta.
He questioned the claims of the Akali-BJP government about the development saying had it really been so the state would not have added seven lakh more families living below poverty line, would not have a cumulative debt of Rs 1.72 lakh crores and there won’t be 47 lakh people, almost one fifth of the total population, unemployed.
At the same time Capt Amarinder added, “yes the Badal family and their close relatives have really made immense progress themselves by multiplying their wealth, constructing two seven star luxury hotels in Gurgaon worth Rs 4000 crores, set up an airline company Orbit Aviation, a fleet of transport buses in the name of Orbit Transport and Dabwali Transport, PTC news and entertainment television channels, liquor vends and sand mining”.
In an appeal to the people of Punjab on the eve of elections, Capt Amarinder urged them to compare the performance of the Akali-BJP government during 2007 to 2012 with that of the Congress between 2002 and 207. “Think before you vote”, he said, while adding, “ask yourself whether any of the promises made by the Akali-BJP alliance has been kept”.
He pointed out, for the first time in the history of the state, seven lakh more families had been declared living below the poverty line in addition to the 13 lakh already existing. He asked, “does more poverty mean development for them?”
The PPC President referred to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s claims about producing surplus power by the year 2010 and even now the industry was facing three days’ power cuts in a week. He appealed people not to get misled by his hoax promises once again. “Earlier he wanted three years and he has already got five and now he is claiming power sufficiency by 2014”, he pointed out.
The former Chief Minister also referred to the bullet trains and skyscrapers being shown in the advertisements. “Do you believe that these bullet trains and the skyscrapers are really in Punjab?” he asked while telling people think how they were being fooled all these years. “Selling the Japanese and Manhattan dreams in Punjab cannot be a substitute for real development”, he remarked.
Referring to the law and order situation he said, no road and no street in Punjab was safe. He pointed out, chains and purses were snatched every day, banks were robbed in broad day light and vehicles were snatched at gunpoint.
He appealed people that if they want peace, progress and development they must vote for the Congress. “You have tried us between 2002 and 2007 and the Akali-BJP between 2007 and 2012”, he appealed to people were asking them, “make the right choice, make the right judgment as everything is before you”.
