Amarinder raps Rijiju for describing Punjab "disturbed area"

Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh today criticised the Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju for his reported statement that "Punjab was still a disturbed area."
Talking to reporters after addressing a meeting of the MGNREGA workers here today, Amarinder pointed out, that Punjab was among the most peaceful state in the country.
"Just because some infiltrators from Pakistan infiltrate into the state and cause some incident does not mean the state is disturbed", he said.
The former Punjab Chief Minister said the statement made by Rijiju during his visit to Amritsar was "highly irresponsible" and it conveyed a wrong message that was far from the truth.

The PCC president said the minister should have done his homework properly before making such a statement that can have far reaching consequences.
He said such statements lead to fear and uncertainty among the investors and they avoid coming to Punjab.

Amarinder expressed surprise over the "strange silence" of the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy Chief Minister son Sukhbir Badal on the issue.
"The government must lodge a strong protest against such statement", he said.
Earlier, addressing the MGNREGA workers, Amarinder lashed out at the Akali government for allegedly "failing" the landless labourers in the villages, who mostly belong to underprivileged communities, by "not implementing" the MGNREGA in Punjab.

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Amarinder also blamed the Modi government for transforming the country's borders into a "war zone", dismissing as "totally contemptuous", BJP chief Amit Shah's statement that the country's borders were "more secure" today than ever.
The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief was reacting to Shah's statement at the Punjabi Suba celebrations in Amritsar on Tuesday.
Shah had attacked the previous UPA dispensation on the issue of border security, saying that the Narendra Modi government has secured the borders.
"Shah seemed to be totally and comfortably oblivious of the fact that border areas were being subjected to unwarranted and unprovoked assault from across the Line of Control (LoC) every day, leaving both soldiers and civilians dead or injured.

"The entire Jammu border area has become a war zone, thanks to the thoughtless and weak defence policies of the Modi government," Amarinder said.
All that the government, through Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, was interested in was to take political mileage from the surgical strikes, alleged the PPCC president.
"The escalation of tension at the border is a clear sign that the situation is fast getting out of control and needs to be addressed immediately, before it snowballs into a full-fledged war," he warned.
Amarinder said New Delhi needed to engage diplomatically with Islamabad to resolve the border issues and restore peace, in the interest of the nation's security and the safety of its people.

Instead of engaging with opposition parties to find a meaningful solution to the festering border issue, the Modi government was going all out to "seize political advantage" from the situation, which it was "deliberately allowing to aggravate," he added.
He said the Congress was always ready to support and cooperate with the government in ensuring peaceful resolution of the border tensions.