SAD MLAs burn copies of Pb budget outside assembly
Chandigarh, March 10, 2021:
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today burnt copies of the Congress government’s budget 2021-22 while asserting the document was a pack of lies and a mischievous attempt to hoodwink Punjabis with deceitful repackaging. They also termed chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal as “Dushman Number One” of Punjabis.
The SAD legislators marched to the Vidhan Sabha by holding in their hands a ‘Congress tree’ depicting the chief minister and the finance minister, which bore only false promises like those given to farmers, youth, scheduled castes, employees and the disadvantaged. They said, “We are reflecting the sentiments of Punjabis who have rejected this anti-people budget. We will not let the Congress government play a fraud with the people.”
Bikram Majithia said the government had cheated farmers by not releasing Rs 5,000 crore allocated for waiving farmers' debts during the last two years. “Even the promise of Rs 10 lakh compensation for farm suicide victims and a government job has not been fulfilled,” said Majithia.
He said similarly the government had allocated Rs 2,400 crore for the SC scholarship scheme during the last four years but not released any money under this head. Lakhs of Dalit students have suffered due to this. He said the government had promised houses for the houseless but did not give either the promised five marla plots or the money to build them.
He added the government had promised ‘Ghar Ghar Naukri’ but now had come down to creating a job portal so that the youth could apply for jobs on it. He asked, “What happened to the forms filled by you four years back? Majithia said that instead of creating any jobs, the government had scrapped thousands of jobs in the name of administrative restructuring.
The SAD legislators, including Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, also pointed out how the Congress government had betrayed employees. They said Dearness Allowance arrears of Rs 4,000 crore had not been released even as the government had initiated recruiting new employees on the central scale instead of the higher Punjab scale. Similarly, he said the Congress party had promised to regularize contractual employees in its first cabinet meeting but was yet to do this till now. “Even the sixth Pay Commission is not being finalized deliberately”, they added.
The SAD MLAs also staged a walkout in the Vidhan Sabha to protest against the mistreatment meted out to Anganwadi workers who had held a protest in front of finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s residence in Bathinda on international Women’s Day.
The legislators, who raised slogans in solidarity with the Anganwadi workers and against the Punjab government both in the well of the House and outside it, said the only mistake the Anganwadi workers had done was remind the FM of the promises made to them. “In return, they were subjected to brutality and even molested”, said
Majithia.
The legislators also condemned the Bathinda police for registering non-bailable cases against the Anganwadi workers at the FM's instanced.