Cong went back on its loan waiver promise to farmers: Sukhbir

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said it was "unfortunate" that the Congress had gone back on its promise for a complete loan waiver for Punjab farmers within one week of government formation.

After paying homage to martyr Bhagat Singh on his death anniversary here, he said the Punjab Congress should not have got forms filled from farmers if it did not have an intention of waiving off their loans.

"Now we are learning that the new chief minister Amarinder Singh has met the Prime Minister and requested for a loan waiver. This is exactly what we were also striving for.
 

"If the Punjab Congress had to request the PM for a loan waiver why did it deceive the people and lead them to believe that the waiver would be done by the party if it returned to power?" he asked.

Sukhbir said it was also "unfortunate" that all the development works halted after the Congress government took over the reins of the state.

"The Congress has gone back on its promise for a complete loan waiver for Punjab farmers within one week of government formation," he claimed.

He said even sewerage work in towns, which was utmost needed, had been stopped.

"This is not a good start. They should have increased the scope of development instead of putting a halt on all ongoing development works," he added.

Earlier, while addressing a large public gathering, he said there was no chance of replication of the development done during SAD-BJP combine rule during the tenure of the Congress government.

He said that Amarinder Singh was chief minister earlier during 2002-07 as well. "Do you remember a single work done by him then? I had asked this in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha also. Former legislature party leader Charanjit Singh Channi, who is a minister now, had stated that the single most important achievement of the Congress government was patchwork done on roads," he said.

He said that the work done by the SAD-BJP combine government was before the people. "You had witnessed an end to power cuts during our government as the state had become power surplus. Road projects worth Rs 23,000 crore were initiated," he said.

Stating that everything would come out before the people, he said it was unfortunate that development had lost out to "false propaganda" in the assembly elections.

Urging the party cadre to remain united, he said they should keep working for people's issues and causes.