With UPA flagship programmes in hand Congress declares war on Akali-BJP govt over development

Tuesday, 02/08/2011

http://my.amarindersingh.in/with-upa-flagship-programmes-in-hand-congress-declares-war-on-akali-bjp-govt-over-development

With the Akali-BJP government in the state totally dependent on various central grants coming through one or the other of the 16 flagship programmes of the UPA government, the Congress in Punjab today decided to expose the claims of the alliance and also explode the myth of discrimination as alleged by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal time and again.

The party has also taken seriously the issue of the monopoly of cable network in Punjab that has been preventing free and fair flow of news and information and has raised the matter with the government of India which has assured proper action.

Addressing the meetings of various committees of the Punjab Pradesh Congress, the party Incharge Mr Gulchain Singh Charak and the PCC President Capt Amarinder Singh said, without these grants the state government would have gone bankrupt. The two leaders emphasised the need for telling the people of Punjab that various grants being sanctioned and released by the state government were actually coming from the centre under these schemes over and above the already allocated plan money and still the Akali-BJP alliance was ungrateful about it. Speaking during the meeting of the UPA Flagship Programmes Implementation Monitoring Committee, Mr Charak said, the main issue in the forthcoming elections will be the development. He said, there cannot be a better example in the recent history than the 16 flagship programmes of the UPA government which are aimed at the welfare of all the sections of the society. “With such ammunition of development projects in your armour you must go for an all out war on the Akali-BJP alliance’, Mr Charak asserted.

He asked the members to monitor each and every development project at the village level and ensure that the UPA government gets due credit. “The Akali-BJP alliance is trying to steal the credit and claim it to be their own that we need to expose”, he said, while adding, “not only that they are being too ungrateful by alleging discrimination”.

Speaking on the occasion, Capt Amarinder said that the state government was not only claiming the false credit, but had also failed in implementing most of the programmes. He said, while a number of projects failed as the state had no money to provide as matching grants, it could not avail even those where the central government paid 100 per cent funding. In several cases, he disclosed, funds were diverted and released by Mr Badal during his Sangat Darshan programmes among his favourite people and places.

During the meeting of the PCC Media Committee, the members expressed concern over the monopoly of the ruling alliance. They said, the local cable networks which had been grabbed by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had monopolised the trade and they were blacking out the channels which they thought were either not towing their line or were being neutral.

To this Capt Amarinder said, he had already raised the issue with the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ms Ambika Soni who had assured that she will look into the matter. He assured that all possible legal measures will be taken to ensure that the Akalis do not subvert the law, freedom of expression and free flow of news and information.

The two leaders also addressed a separate meeting of the PCC Publicity committee.

Prominent among those present included Mr Surinder Singla, chairman of the Media Committee, Prof Darbari Lal, chairman of the Publicity Committee, Mr RR Bhardwaj, vice chairman of the Programme Implementation Monitoring Committee, MLAs Jassi Khangura, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Joginderpal Jain, Tejinder Bittu and others.