Seeing the controversy over the issue of reported denial of financial package to Punjab by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley blowing out of proportion, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday maintained that he was “confident” that the Centre would certainly bail out the State from the financial stringency in the near future.
“Arun Jaitley is a true statesman and a seasoned politician of high stature, who never nursed any personal grudge against any individual or party,” said CM Badal while talking to the mediapersons on the sidelines on Chhapaar Mela.
Badal reiterated that the SAD-BJP has a pious and long lasting alliance, where such petty considerations have even no place in the minds of national leaders like Jaitley, who was ever vying to ensure overall development and prosperity of the states to make our nation strong without any bias or prejudice.
Responding to the State Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa’s demand of making Jaitley’s letter public, the Chief Minister said that the said letter has been widely published in the media and now there was hardly any need to make it public.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, in Chandigarh, stated that Punjab “is demanding only its right as it has fought the nation’s war against terrorism and paid a heavy price of Rs 2,500 crore for this. Besides, keeping in view the contribution of Punjab for food grains in national kitty, the Union Government should announce an economic package for the state”.
Earlier addressing the public gathering on the historic Chhapaar Mela, the Chief Minister highly appreciated the political acumen and leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides his visits to Bhutan, Nepal and Japan to strengthen bi-lateral ties with these countries.
Making frontal attack on the AAP, the Chief Minister said that its sudden popularity has been completely vanished like a sand dune perished by the whirlwind. “People have duly realized its real existence due to which its candidates could not even save their security deposits in the recently concluded by-poll to Patiala and Talwandi Sabo Assembly segments…It has no political future and could not befool innocent people of Punjab any longer,” he said.