Taking a dig at Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's trip to China, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today alleged that he had gone to explore his "personal investment options and opportunities" there.
"...No doubt that Sukhbir having realised that he had exhausted all options of investment in Punjab and also the fact that he was going to have enough time post-2017 Assembly elections after getting defeated by the Congress, he was now looking at the business opportunities in unexplored places like China, where, he might be thinking, his investments will remain away from public scrutiny," Aamrinder said.
Badal currently is in China to showcase the State as an attractive investment destination.
"I challenged Sukhbir to show a single penny worth of investment that he can claim he has brought to Punjab after the visit or during the last nine years of being in power," he said.
Singh alleged that the manufacturing sector, particularly the bicycle industry, was moving out to other states like Jharkhand and about 20,000 big and small industrial units were already shut down in Punjab.
Taking a jibe at Sukhbir's announcement about setting up the "cycle valley" in Ludhiana, Capt Amarinder said, "it was not for the first time that catchy phrases were being coined in an apparent bid to fool people".
"What happened to the textile park in Ludhiana?" or may be you plan to set up the 'cycle valley' on the rooftop of the textile park," he questioned.
"Earlier we saw much hyped investor summits without a penny of investment and now we are being made to believe that the investments will come from China," he alleged.
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Defending his strong stand against the SYL, Singh said, "Punjab does not have sufficient water to fulfil its own needs then how can it spare water for others."
If SYL is allowed to be built, over 10 lakh acres of land will turn barren in Malwa region, he claimed.
Earlier replying to questions from the general public during the programme, he announced that if Congress forms the government, all those villages and panchayats with Congress majority, which have been "ignored and discriminated" against by the Akalis, will get priority in the allocation of development funds and grants.
"For me every Punjabi is the same irrespective of which party he belongs to and I don't like to discriminate against anyone," he said, adding he didn't discriminate against anyone when he was the chief minister.
Responding to the demands for avenging the vendetta resorted to by the Akalis against the Congress workers, Amarinder said, "I will avenge each and every case of victimisation and vendetta and it is my fight as I will not let anyone who victimised my people to go scot-free."
Whether it is the Akali jathedars or the overenthusiastic policemen, everyone who harassed and victimised the Congress workers will have to account for it, he said.
"I will pay them back in the same coin and the same measure," Singh said.
