Punjab’s Opposition parties have slammed the ruling Congress government for seeking to extract political mileage at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic by displaying images of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on relief material being distributed during the ongoing lockdown in the State.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA and Leader of the Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said that it was “shameful” that the ruling Congress was indulging in such petty politics at a time of crisis.
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“People are in urgent need of food and other essentials commodities but the government machinery is wasting precious time in pasting photographs of the Chief Minister,” Mr. Cheema asserted. “Priority should be to distribute relief material without any delay,” he added.
The AAP leader alleged that the government had failed to perform during the past three years but was now attempting to gain “political mileage” at a time when politics should have been kept at bay.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) asked the Punjab government to rush relief material to the poor and needy as quickly as possible and not waste time in labelling it with the chief minister’s picture. “This kind of politicisation should be avoided in an emergency,” the party added.
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Former Minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said there was no need to delay distribution of essentials by packaging them with the chief minister’s picture. “There will be many opportunities to put the Chief Minister’s picture on a variety of things, but in today’s crisis these kinds of actions should be avoided,” he said.
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Mr. Cheema said the State government should speed up distribution of food material. “People have been complaining since days that the food material promised to them has not reached them. Now it is clear that it was delayed so that the CM’s picture could be affixed on all the material including flour bags and hand sanitisers. This is very unfortunate,” he added.