SAD failed to get benefits for state

JALANDHAR, June 14: Punjab Congress leaders Bir Devinder Singh and Anil Dutta today criticised the ruling Akali party for having abandoned a...

JALANDHAR, June 14: Punjab Congress leaders Bir Devinder Singh and Anil Dutta today criticised the ruling Akali party for having abandoned all demands of the state, for which it had waged a long struggle.

Addressing mediapersons here, they said the Akali government had failed to get listed any of Punjab’s demands on the national agenda of governance, in spite of being a partner of the BJP-led coalition at the Centre and in the state. The SAD government failed to get any new train for Punjab or budgetary allocation for Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link, they added. They said the Akalis’ muted response to L. K. Advani’s statement that Chandigarh would remain a UT, had also "exposed" them, as instead of launching an agitation on the issue, Badal had only said that he would write to the Central government on the subject.

The leaders said the Akalis also failed to protect the Bathinda Oil Refinery project, which would have boosted industrialisation of the stateby spawning 2,000 ancillary units. They said cancellation of the project by the planning commission was discriminatory to Punjab as no similar project has been cancelled any where in the country.

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The Congress leaders said the Akalis also remained subdued in reacting to nuclear tests, adding that tension generated by them and the economic sanctions being slapped against India would harm Punjab the most. They urged the Akali government to denotify the SYL canal project, disband the SYL organisation, return the land acquired cheaply from farmers, and give them soft loans to reclaim it since the Akali party had always stated that Punjab had no surplus waters to spare for other states.

The Congress leaders asked the Chief Minister to spell out his party’s agenda of coalition with the BJP, because it had allegedly failed to safeguard the interests of the state and its people.

Bir Devinder Singh, who is a strong contender for the office of president of Punjab Congress, said the PPCC should be revamped after the June 21 panchayat elections and the party high command should appoint a new president who would activate the Congress at the grass-roots and make it a fighting unit to take on the AKALI-BJP combine.

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