Brushing aside all allegations of the SAD-BJP Government that the previous Congress-led UPA Central Government had always behaved like a stepmother to Punjab, Congress legislative leader Sunil Jakhar on Sunday slammed the State Government for not using the Rs100 crore Central grants to improve condition of waterlogged areas of the south-western Punjab.
“To protect Punjab from the problem of waterlogging, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sanctioned project by taking personal interest to solve this problem. He had also sanctioned three important projects of worth Rs2,246 crore. The Central Government had sanctioned first installment of Rs100 crore but the SAD-BJP Government could not even initiated the process of tenders for this work,” alleged Jakhar.
He said that the Central Government had sent sanction letter on March 19, 2014, despite the fact that there was model code of conduct during lok Sabha elections and the Central Government had taken the special permission of Election Commission of India to issue the grant to Punjab.
“Instead of making false allegation over previous Central Government, the State Government must tell that how many projects and grants have been sanctioned by the newly NDA Government for Punjab as the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal used to claim that that when Narendra Modi will come, Punjab will have acche din,” he added.
Jakhar also pointed out that the farmers of different parts of Punjab, including the Chief Minister’ own area Sri Muktsar Sahib, have been affected with the problem of water logging. “The State Government should not always train their guns towards the Central Government…even they should accept failure of their own State Government for the mismanagement,” he added.