A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that its alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), did not consult it before levying entry tax on sugar in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday said that the saffron party was “a part and parcel of the Cabinet” which took this decision. Badal made it clear that each and every decision to govern the State was taken collectively.
Putting the ball back into the BJP’s court, the five-time Chief Minister said, “BJP was part and parcel of the Cabinet, which took the decision to levy entry tax on sugar in the State.” Asserting that the two alliance partners had complete understanding” on all issues, he said: “We take decisions pertaining to the State collectively.” The 87-year-old Chief Minister said that the alliance was everlasting and firm as both the alliance partners has “complete faith and confidence in each other”.
“The Ministers of the SAD-BJP alliance collectively take decisions in the Cabinet which are then implemented in Punjab for the welfare of the people and prosperity of the State,” Badal told the reporters on the sidelines of the second day of his Sangat Darshan programme at Sham Kheda in Muktsar. BJP, a day before, had expressed dissatisfaction over SAD for not taking it into confidence before imposing 11 per cent entry tax on sugar. The party has virtually slammed its alliance partner for the decision claiming that it had not been “consulted” about the move.
“BJP was not taken into confidence about the state government’s decision to impose an entry tax of 11 per cent on sugar,” the state BJP chief Kamal Sharma had said at Jalandhar on Tuesday, adding that the saffron party would raise the matter with the state government and demand the rollback of the order.
Advocating for untied funds for the overall development of the States, the Chief Minister said that the States should be given liberty to utilise these as per the needs of its people. “In order to ensure holistic development of the states and the country, the implementation of federal structure of polity is must,” he said.
“However, for their own vested interests, the Congress leadership from time to time diluted this very fundamental principle of the Indian constitution thereby giving a big blow to the overall development of the country. The result of Congress’ sinister move is that the country is today facing a large number of social maladies like unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and others,” he added.
lauding the NDA Government for forming NITI Aayog at the Centre by scrapping the Planning Commission of India (PCI), Badal said that it was the first move towards federalism in the country. “All the states would now have equal say in the planning process adopted by the NITI Aayog, which is a paradigm shift from the centralized approach followed by the erstwhile PCI. But still, a lot needs to be done for empowering the states for which NDA will play a crucial role,” he added.