Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday hit out at the Shiromani Akali Dal for its “political stunt” over the power tariff hike in the State and the murder of two former SAD sarpanches (village heads).
The SAD has threatened to take to the streets over the two issues, which the Chief Minister dubbed as mere theatrics, aimed at covering up its trail of misdeeds and mis-governance of 10 years.
Criticising the Akali leadership over its threat of agitation if the killers of former Akali sarpanches — Baba Gurdeeep Singh and Dalbir Singh Dhilwan — are not arrested within two weeks, Captain Amarinder said the Punjab police was doing a much better job at solving crimes under the present regime than the previous SAD-BJP government.
These kind of ultimatums might have worked under the Akali government, when many innocent people were thrown behind bars after being charged in false cases, he said, adding that under his goverment, no innocent person would be victimised for crimes they did not commit.
Countering the Akali allegations on the power tariff hike, Captain Amarinder cited figures to show that the percentage increase during the previous regime, from 2007 to 2017, was much more than what his government had implemented. “Why don’t you check out your own track record before lashing out at us,” he said.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the total hike under the SAD-BJP rule was 22.51% in 2006-07 over 2001-02, 42.13% in 2011-12 over 2006-07, 24.77% in 2016-17 over 2011-12, as against a mere 13.69% in 2019-20 over 2016-17.
