Badals using Covid crisis for taking political mileage: Capt - Hindustan Times
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Badals using Covid crisis for taking political mileage: Capt

Hindustan Times, Chandigarh | By, Chandigarh
Jul 03, 2020 11:17 PM IST

Amarinder flayed Sukhbir over his allegations of embezzlement in distribution of ration by the Congressmen in Punjab

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday lashed out at Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and Union minister Harsimrat Badal, accusing them for “misleading the people of the state to promote their petty political agenda in the midst of the Covid crisis”.

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In a statement, the CM said the concerted manner in which the Badal couple is running a campaign of lies has exposed their double standards.

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Amarinder also flayed Sukhbir over his allegations of embezzlement in distribution of ration by the Congressmen in Punjab, and said the MLAs were supporting his government’s efforts to ensure that nobody goes hungry. The MLAs are close to the people and well placed to help out those in immediate or urgent need, which is what they have been doing, he added.

Amarinder said Sukhbir’s allegations that the foodgrains received by the state government had not been distributed among the people were totally incorrect.

“The fact was that the quantity of food grains received by the state government till June was more than the figures given by Sukhbir, with over 90% of it distributed. Under the PMGKAY, the wheat allocated to the state was 212164 MT, of which 199091 MT had been distributed, while of the 10800 MT Dal allocated, 10305 MT had been distributed,” said the statement.

In addition, under the ATMANIRBHAR scheme of GoI, wheat(per person) and dal (per family) was provided for 14.14 lac persons, and the state, after grounding the wheat to flour, added dal to make it 1 kg per person and put in 1 kg sugar on its own. In fact, the state government had distributed 17 lakh packets to migrant labourers at the cost of Rs 69 crores from its own funds, with 10 kg atta, 2 kg dal and 2 kg sugar, he added.

“This data was sufficient to show that Sukhbir’s claims and allegations on foodgrain distribution were unsubstantiated and baseless, and as usual, the SAD chief was indulging in double standards”, said the chief minister.

Taking on Harsimrat Badal on the issue of fuel VAT, the chief minister said if she was so concerned about the impact of the escalating fuel prices on the common man, why did she not pressurise the Union Government, in which she is a cabinet minister, to put a stop on the uncontrolled hike in prices of diesel and petrol for 22 straight day.

He said Harsimrat seemed to have had no problem with the central government earning more than Rs 2 lakh core from the fuel price hike ,but when it came to her own state, which was reeling under an unprecedented fiscal crisis and was struggling to cope with the Covid pandemic, she found it anti-people.

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