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Mann should resign if he has best interests of Punjab at heart: Sukhbir
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the situation in Punjab is spiralling out of control
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday asked Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann to resign if he had best interests of Punjab at heart.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, he said the chief minister was ruining the state. While the industry is moving out of Punjab, its government is indulging in scams and splurging money on advertisements, Sukhbir said.
“The situation in Punjab is spiralling out of control, leading to a civil war. So the best for the chief minister would be to resign and prevail upon the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to seek a fresh mandate from Punjabis,” he added.
Claiming that the last nine months had been the “worst” in the history of Punjab, Sukhbir said, “No one is safe here. Businessmen and traders are the most vulnerable ones as they are being forced to pay ransoms and protection money to gangsters.”
“Such is the situation in Punjab that leading industrialists are approaching the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to invest there. The UP chief minister even relayed to me that industrialists wanted to shift there as they felt Punjab was no longer safe. The state also lacks an industrial policy,” Sukhbir said, adding that the scenario was leading to unemployment and unrest.
“Punjab is also on the brink of a financial emergency as it has borrowed ₹30,000 crore in the last nine months, but has done nothing to justify it. Collection of GST, stamp duty and land revenue has gone down,” he said, while urging governor Banwarilal Purohit to order a probe into ‘expenditure of ₹300 crore’ by the AAP from Punjab’s coffers on advertisements during Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections.
The SAD president also alleged that the chief minister has sublet the Punjab governance to the AAP high command. “Pakistan is bound to take advantage of this situation. If Punjab becomes a disturbed state, it will impact the peace of the country,” he added.
