Will not spare anyone found guilty in Bargari carnage case: Punjab CM

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday vowed to not to spare anyone found guilty in the Bargari carnage case.

Addressing a press conference here, Amarinder said: "I will not spare anyone, including a police officer or politician if they found guilty in the Bargari carnage case."

Slamming the Akalis for failing to bring the culprits to book and not accepting the recommendations of its own Commission set up to probe the incident, the Chief Minister said the investigations of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by his government would reach their logical conclusion soon.

This comes a day a former police officer Charanjit Singh Sharma was arrested by the SIT in connection with the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing in Faridkot, an incident linked to the Bargari carnage, which claimed the lives of two persons.

Pointing out that one senior police officer implicated in the case had already been arrested, the Chief Minister said it was obvious that the officer in question must have been following orders, and the SIT would identify those who issued the orders.

The Chief Minister, who was here to disburse Rs 97 crore as relief to 18,308 small farmers from Bathinda and Mansa districts against debt from cooperative banks, personally handed over debt relief certificates to 10 farmers each from the two districts as a token of the disbursement.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister lambasted the previous SAD-BJP government for ruining everything, from agriculture to industry and economy, during its 10-year misrule. "The Badals and their cronies were busy filling their own pockets at the cost of the people's welfare", he said.

Captain Amarinder expressed happiness at having faithfully implemented his pre-election promise to waive off farm debts and break the backbone of the drug trade. "There had been a sharp decline in the number of state's farmer suicides and drug trade. Also, The Buddy and DAPO programmes were making significant strides in checking drug abuse and helping in the rehabilitation of the affected youth, he added.

On the issue of farmers' problems, the Chief Minister lamented that the Centre had failed to come to their rescue despite his repeated pleas.

"Despite fiscal constraints and Rs 2.08 lakh crore debt inherited by us from the erstwhile SAD-BJP regime, we were reaching out to the farmers with its debt waiver scheme, which would benefit 10.25 lakh of the 17 lakh farming families in the state," said Captain Amarinder.

Continuing his tirade against SAD and the Centre, the Chief Minister said, "Punjab had witnessed no development under the incumbent Congress government, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had levelled false allegations that no loans had been waived off in Punjab."

Captain Amarinder pointed out that his government had spent Rs 250 crore for subsiding 27,500 crop residue management machines. "Next year, Rs 400 crore shall be spent on providing 40,000 more such machines to the farmers," he added.