A day after SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal challenged former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to mention just five achievements when he was at the helm, the Congress on Thursday dismissed the Akali leader’s demand as “contemptible and unworthy” of consideration.
“Sukhbir Badal’s demand for Amarinder Singh to list out the achievements of his tenure as Chief Minister is contemptible and unworthy,” several State Congress leaders maintained.
The Punjab Congress also released a 10-point “charge sheet” detailing the alleged serious failures of the Akali government on various fronts.
Taking a dig at Mr. Sukhbir for his “selective amnesia”, the Congress leaders said the Deputy Chief Minister had asked this question on earlier occasions too and Capt. Amarinder had, in fact, submitted a detailed response in the State Assembly.
“Mr. Sukhbir’s demand that Capt. Amarinder again come out with a list of his achievements is ridiculous and not worth responding to,” the PPCC leaders said, claiming the PPCC president’s achievements as Chief Minister was not limited to just five but exceed 100.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sukhbir had launched a scathing attack on Capt. Amarinder, asking whether he was feeling “ashamed” to talk about his tenure in the State by maintaining a “complete silence” about it.
He had challenged Capt. Amarinder to mention just five things or achievements when he was the Punjab CM.
Congress leaders said the Akali government was in the docks over its all-round failure during its nine-year rule.
Citing the “failures” of the Badal government, Punjab Congress senior vice-president Laal Singh and party MLAs Kewal Singh Dhillon and Rana Gurjit Singh said the Akalis had allegedly “meticulously and shamelessly plundered” Punjab, plunging it into a state of total anarchy, with not an iota of development to claim.
“Trail of disaster”
“The corrupt leadership of the Akali-BJP combine had chipped away the State’s glorious legacy to leave a trail of disaster, which had impacted every individual and destroyed many families,” the Congress leaders alleged in a release here. The Punjab Congress leaders said they were sharing only ten “glaring instances of the total failure of the Badal government on various fronts, though the list was actually endless”.
“From its per capita income to the GSDP, economic parameters in Punjab have been on a downslide since the Akalis took over the government reins. From number 7 in 2007, the per capita income ranking slipped to 15 in 2015. The state’s current debt burden is Rs 1.25 lakh core,” they said.
The State has actually witnessed de-industrialisation in the past 10 years, with industrial growth going down from 21.5 per cent in 2007 to 2.1 per cent in 2015. In contrast to other States, Punjab had received no concessions or tax holidays,” they claimed.
On the unemployment issue, they claimed “not only has the Akali government failed to deliver on its promise, made in November 2015, of giving 1.13 lakh jobs to youth within six months, but the youth unemployment rate is continuously going up (it was 16.6 per cent as of 2014).”
- PTI
