Jakhar slams AAP over special Assembly session

Punjab BJP Chief Sunil Jakhar on Sunday slammed the AAP Government for convening a special Assembly session to oppose the VB-G RAM G Act, saying the Bhagwant Mann dispensation was “acting like an event management company” instead of focusing on development works. Intensifying his attack, the BJP leader alleged that the AAP Government was preparing for yet another “propaganda exercise”.

The Punjab Government has called a one-day special session of the assembly on December 30 against the Centre’s Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, which replaces the 20-year-old MGNREGA.

The VB-G RAM G Bill was passed in Parliament during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament amid vociferous protests by the Opposition. The new act has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.

However, Punjab Cabinet Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond on Saturday claimed that the new rural employment law will severely impact below-poverty-line families, Scheduled Caste communities, and rural labourers who depend on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for survival.

In a statement here on Sunday, BJP leader Jakhar said the Mann Government has “failed” on every front and has no achievements to count. “Therefore, it keeps rolling out new propaganda every day,” he said, pointing to the special session.

He described the special session, being convened to oppose the VB-G RAM G Act, as the next episode in this series.

It would be better if the Government used a special session to discuss the “deteriorating” law-and-order situation in the State and to “deliberate on the frequent murders and extortion threats being reported almost daily,” Jakhar said.

Jakhar said that during a Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s recent visit to Punjab, people from every district highlighted “corruption” in the MGNREGA scheme.

He urged the chief minister to issue a white paper on the “corruption that has taken place in Punjab under this scheme” over the past four years. Pointing out that implementing the MGNREGA scheme was entirely the responsibility of the State Government, Jakhar said if the Mann dispensation believed that the scheme did not require any amendments and was ideal in its present form, then why did it fail to provide 100 days of employment to Punjab’s poor over the last four years?

He accused the Government of misleading the poor by getting forms filled out and thumb impressions taken, while questioning why the rightful four years of employment of these poor people were denied. Challenging Chief Minister Mann, the BJP leader also asked why the AAP Government is troubled when the Central Government is promising to stop “corruption” in the MGNREGA scheme and provide 125 days of work instead of 100.

The AAP Government should stop misleading the poor of Punjab, he said. “The Centre has clearly stated that full employment must be ensured under this scheme, while the state Government is opposing the new law.”

He pointed out that during the current fiscal year, the poor in Punjab have been provided only 26 days of employment on average, whereas in the previous years, it managed just 38 days of employment on average. This “exposes” the anti-poor face of the AAP Government, Jakhar said, adding, “the drama of convening special sessions is only meant to hide its shortcomings.”

Referring to earlier special sessions of the Assembly, Jakhar asked CM Mann what happened to the draft law against sacrilege that was sent to a select committee.

He also asked about the outcome of the special session convened after a charge that crores of rupees were being offered to AAP MLAs for defection was levelled, and the investigation was handed over to the Punjab Police.

Similarly, the Government has been silent on the status of Punjab’s agricultural policy and the chief minister’s assurances to farmer unions that it would be implemented soon, the State BJP chief said.

Jakhar said the Government has convened several special sessions of the Assembly, but apart from presenting them as events, the Government should make it public what benefits, if any, these sessions have brought to the common people. “To escape accountability for this failure, the Government is repeatedly calling special sessions, which will bring no benefit other than placing an additional financial burden on the people of Punjab,” Jakhar added.