SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday dubbed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Laljit Singh Bullar as “partners in crime” in their botched up assault on grass-root democracy through dissolution of and election to panchayats in the State.

“The Chief Minister is now acting like a coward and by trying to hide by officers as scapegoats. The fact is that the entire process of dissolution of Panchayats to be followed by election was initiated, piloted, and signed by Bhagwant Mann through the concerned Minister Bhullar. IAS officers had merely presented the concerned file for ‘perusal’ and necessary orders by the Chief Minister. The officers had specifically noted on the file itself that it was being sent ‘as desired by the Chief Minister’,” said Sukhbir.

Sukhbir said that the Minister deserved dismissal as he was responsible for steering the decision to dissolve the Panchayats from the beginning to end, and the Chief Minister owed an apology to the people before resigning on moral grounds, as all this exercise was carried out with the complete knowledge and assent of the Chief Minister.

Neither Laljit Bhullar nor the CM can be absolved   of the “criminal decision” as the file containing the CM’s instructions carried the signatures of both of them, he said, adding that if anyone needs to be punished following the adverse notice taken by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, “it is the Panchayat Minister and the Chief Minister and not the two bureaucrats who have been suspended”.

Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was looting the State exchequer to fund the party’s campaign nationwide, Sukhbir said: “The Rs 750 crore annual advertising budget is being used for this purpose only”.

He said that in stark contrast, the Government had released a paltry Rs 186 crore to farmers as compensation for the destruction of their paddy crop when the damage had been pegged at Rs 10,000 crore.