Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday accused chief minister Bhagwant Mann of levelling false allegations against the Congress and said that the previous Congress government did not set up any new toll plaza in the state.
Warring said the agreements for toll collection were signed by the SAD-BJP government. The chief minister is targeting the Congress because it is the principal opposition party and is taking on the state government on issues concerning the people, he said. Dubbing Mann as the first CM ever to have superpowers to shut down the already-closed toll plazas, the Congress leader challenged him to close down the Kurali toll, barely 5km from the chief minister’s official residence, instead of the one that he closed on Wednesday, the contract of which was anyhow going to end.
He asked the CM to stop wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money on his ego-satisfying theatrics and be sensitive to the state’s already crumbling financial position. “If your officers don’t tell you, let me share this with you with great concern that your pointless, unnecessary and avoidable trip to the toll plaza has cost almost ₹50 lakh on account of elaborate administrative preparations including your travel and security arrangements,” Warring alleged. He also claimed that the AAP government had extended the period of one toll plaza by 476 days.