Congress candidate from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat Vijay Inder Singla on Sunday accused the SAD-BJP regime of bringing development activities to a grinding halt in Punjab which, he claimed, remained a leading state for several decades.
Punjab had remained a source of inspiration for other states and its farmers made the country self-reliant in food, Singla who is seeking re-election from Sangrur said, adding that "but with its seven years of mal-governance the Akali-BJP alliance has brought the state to a grinding halt".
"The treasury is empty, no new industry is coming up and agriculture is under stress. Big industrialists are abandoning the state for lack of work-culture and right infrastructure. The youths are getting misguided for want of employment and falling into drug traps," Singla said.
This time, Singla is pitted against Rajya Sabha MP and SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee Bhagwant Mann. "Everybody knows that the state government has no money to pay for its employees' salaries and pensions, and pursuing a development agenda is a far fetched dream today... Central funds and projects have largely come to the rescue of Punjab," he said.
He urged the people of Punjab to introspect within and not to let false propaganda of SAD-BJP alliance sway them. He said that it has become a habit of SAD leaders to blame the central government for Punjab's ills.
Singla claimed that the Punjab government had not been accessing funds under more than 40 central schemes.
Even significant funds available for providing interest subsidy on educational loans under a central scheme are not being accessed and the SAD-BJP alliance has been cheating the youth in securing a future for themselves, he alleged.
