Lashing out at the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its failure to fulfill pre-poll promises, Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday alleged that corruption is “breaking records” and the mafia is booming under the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab.
“What good has happened in the last one year of the AAP regime,” said Thakur, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, while addressing the media in Jalandhar ahead of the May 10 Lok Sabha bypoll.
Thakur also attacked the AAP Government for allegedly listing the Centre's decisions for Punjab like setting up new highways, approving a smart city in Jalandhar, opening of the Kartarpur corridor, ropeway project for Hemkunt Sahib, forming SIT in 1984-anti-Sikh riots.
Coming down heavily on AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly spending Rs 45 crore on renovation of his official residence and getting security cover of two states, Thakur said that Kejriwal used to say that he will neither take security nor a big bungalow. “They (AAP) seek votes in the name of aam aadmi, but there is ‘loot ki khuli chhoot' (open loot) in Delhi and Punjab. Corruption is breaking records, mafia is booming...What good has happened in Punjab in the past one year,,” he said.
Also accusing AAP of not keeping its promise of giving Rs 1,000 per month to all women, Thakur said: “Women, who trusted them, are still waiting for money to come into their accounts…Fourteen months have passed (since AAP came to power in Punjab) and Rs 14,000 should have come, but not even 14 paise has come.”
“Maan karne wala kaam koi Bhagwant Mann ne nahin kiya (Bhagwant Mann did not do any work on which he can take pride). All dishonest deeds were done by the Mann government,” he alleged.
Thakur, also attacking the Congress for giving a ticket for the Jalandhar bypoll to ‘one family’, said: “MLA and MP from one family and then again ticket was given to the same family. There is a disappointment even among Congressmen that the Congress has remained limited to just one family. Many Congress workers are leaving the party.”
The Union Minister was referring to the ticket given by the Congress to Karamjit Kaur, wife of late Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary, whose death necessitated the Jalandhar bypoll. Their son Vikramjit Chaudhary is an MLA from Phillaur.