Mohali: Senior Congress Leader Amarinder Singh today opposed the Punjab Government's move to seek Rs 10,000 crore loan saying that the state was already reeling under severe debt to the tune of Rs 1,25,000 crore.
The SAD-BJP government, was planning to get a loan of Rs 10,000 crore with an eye on 2017 state elections, the Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha said, while addressing a rally organised by senior party leader and local MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu here.
Amarinder said the money was proposed to be spent in Assembly segments purely for electoral purposes, which he will not allow and also warned the officials against providing any guarantees as they will be held accountable later.
He lashed out at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asking why he could not think about development all these years and why was he now trying to deceive people. He hit out at Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal asking what happened to his pre poll claims that Punjab will produce surplus electricity which will be exported to Pakistan.
"Leave aside Pakistan, you have not been able to provide it to anybody at home, neither to the domestic consumers, nor the industry nor to the farmers," he said, adding even the power plants that had been set up in Punjab had no commitment of providing electricity to the state.
In an interaction with reporters before addressing the rally, Amarinder ridiculed Sukhbir's assertion of filing a Public Interest Litigation in Madhya Pradesh seeking ban on growing of poppy husk there. "Seeking ban on poppy husk there (Madhya Pradesh) is a good thing, but who will ban the drugs which are being produced in Punjab under your nose and with your patronage,"? he asked.
"Sukhbir needs to set his house in order as he cannot blame others when synthetic drugs were being produced under his nose and with his patronage," the Congress MP alleged. Amarinder said that during his tenure as Chief Minister he had strongly argued for national drug policy and that was the only solution to address the inter-state drug peddling.
Revealing his vision for Punjab, the ex-CM said, although it will take years to "retrieve and redeem" Punjab from the sorry state of affairs the Akalis have pushed it into, he will ensure that it is done. Referring to the "poor education system in the state", he said, the poor need to be provided with quality education like the children of rich so that they can qualify for good jobs.
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