Opposition parties in Punjab has lashed out on the Parkash Singh Badal-led Government for its failure, so far, to get anything from the “favourable” Government at the Centre, of which his party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, is a part.

Asking him to lodge protest against ill-treatment being meted out to his Government by the Centre, Punjab Congress on Saturday asked him to withdraw his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Badal, who is the Food Processing Minister at the Centre, from the Narendra Modi Cabinet.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, so far, refused to accept even a single demand of the Badal Government, including Rs2330 crore as the drought relief. That is the minimum that Badal should have got cleared from his own Government,” said the State Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa.

Bajwa reminded Badal that all these years, he had been alleging step-motherly treatment by the UPA Government notwithstanding that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh never turned down any demand from Punjab.

“But now, the situation is diametrically opposite despite his own Government being in power in Delhi,” said Bajwa.

“Rejection of Punjab’s demand by Modi so far is a strong indication of widening differences between the Akali Dal and the BJP. Badal used to describe this alliance as unbreakable and the best guarantor of peace but now the alliance partner is in no mood to share Badal Government’s anti-incumbency,” added Bajwa.

He said that Modi Government had cold-shouldered the demands like transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab. The Punjabi farmers in Gujarat continued to be haunted by the threat of getting uprooted and Badal has not been able to get the SlP withdrawn, he said.

People’s Party of Punjab president Manpreet Badal said that Punjab seemed to be heading towards an early assembly poll as parting of ways between Akali Dal and its alliance partner was visible, going by the fact that the Badal Government had been totally ditched by MOdi government.

“Modi Government has even held back the last instalment of Rs3,000 crore that was to be released for paddy procurement,” he said.

“During the run-up to the lok Sabha elections, Badal had consistently tried to convince the people that the fortunes of Punjab would change once the BJP came into power at the Centre with Modi as the Prime Minister. Now, he must explain to the people as to what went wrong as Punjab is nowhere on the agenda of the Modi Government and not a single demand has been met,” he pointed out.

“What is the matter of serious concern is that the Modi Government has refused to respond so far to the submission made by the Badal Government for compensating farmers by allocating Rs2,330 crore as drought relief,” he said, adding that either the state government had failed to represent the case properly or Modi Government had taken strong notice of financial mismanagement and profligacy leading to wastage of precious resources of the State.