Cong govt in Punjab has failed on all fronts: Badal

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal today accused the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government of failing on all fronts and betraying people's trust in the first six months of its term.
"The Amarinder Singh government has failed on political, economic or religious fronts. It has not just belied the expectations of the people but even betrayed their trust," Badal said here in a statement.
The five-time chief minister said the Congress government has deceived the farmers and the youths and showed little concern for the religious sentiments of the Punjabis.
"This is not all. The government has also played a cruel joke on the industry (sector) by announcing power at Rs 5 per unit but not implementing the decision," the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron said.

Terming the six-month Congress tenure as one filled with empty commitments, Badal said "nothing is sacrosanct for this government".
The former chief minister said the government had announced in the Vidhan Sabha that farmers' loans will be waived to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore. However, there has been no progress on that front.

Badal alleged that the government had also said farmers will not be subjected to 'kurki' (auction of mortgage land), but did not amend the land revenue act to make this idea a reality.
"The government has even failed to give compensation to the families of more than 200 farmers who committed suicide in the last six months," he said, adding that the ruling party had even appropriated the annual placement drive of technical institutes and tried to give an impression that it was doling out jobs to youths under the 'ghar ghar naukari scheme'.

"The Amarinder Singh-led party is yet to fill the vacant government posts and regularize contractual employees. It has flatly refused to honour its promise to give unemployment allowances to the youth," he said.
Challenging the government to list its achievements, Badal said the Punjabis will shun the Congress in the forthcoming Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll.
The SAD patron said the worst sufferers in the present dispensation were the under-privileged. "Money sent to villages by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government has been recalled and even the ongoing sewerage work has come to a halt. All social welfare schemes and scholarship schemes have also been put on hold," he said.

The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), however, dismissed the allegations and said Badal is criticising the ruling party in a desperate bid to cover his government's lapses in the past 10 years.
The SAD's allegations against the government were aimed at diverting public attention from the economic, social and political damage it caused to the state, the PPCC said in its statement.