Amarinder warns of social unrest

Friday, 08/02/2013

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130208/punjab.htm#1

Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today said Punjab was on the brink of social unrest, caused by the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state and its “dwindling” economy.

Interacting with lawyers in the Bar room at the District Courts Complex here while seeking votes for Congress candidate Vijay Sathi in the February 23 bypoll, he claimed that the SAD-BJP government had failed on all fronts.

Amarinder Singh said, “The people were expecting better governance when they voted the Akalis to power for the second consecutive term. But, all they got in return was lawlessness, shattered economy, burden of extras taxes and unemployment.”

The state Congress chief claimed that the common man in the state was worried about the “sharp rise” in the crime graph. “The incidents of abduction and rape of a minor girl in Faridkot, murder of a police officer, who was trying to protect his daughter in Amritsar, and beating up of an AIG-ranked officer in Ludhiana are a few examples of the Akalis taking law into their own hands,” he said.

Seeking votes for Sathi, the Congress leader said the Moga bypoll had come as an opportunity for the state people to give a referendum on the “poor” governance and “anti-people” policies of the SAD-BJP government.

Amarinder Singh said industrialists were not ready to invest in the state due to the “prevailing insecurity” and the “worsening” power situation. “The commissioning of new thermal plants in the private sector should have been avoided. The government should instead have gone in for similar projects in the public sector,” he said.

On the SAD claims about making Punjab power-surplus, he said cuts for as long as six hours were being imposed currently, a period when there was no major demand of electricity.

Citing the fall in the rate of industrial growth, Amarinder Singh there were about 50 lakh unemployed youth in the state “who were feeling restless”. “When the people do not have jobs, they are vulnerable to various ills, including drug abuse and crime, which can lead to social unrest,” he said.

Vijay Sathi also lashed out at SAD nominee Joginder Pal Jain. “The defection by Jain at the behest of Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal was against the very principles of democracy,” he said.

Sathi, who is also a member of the Bar association, claimed that he was a leader with a clean image and, therefore, “most eligible to be voted in the Moga bypoll”.

"When the people do not have jobs, they are vulnerable to various ills, which can lead to social unrest...The incidents of abduction and rape of a minor girl in Faridkot, murder of a police officer, who was protecting his daughter in Amritsar, and beating up of an AIG-ranked officer in Ludhiana are a few examples of the Akalis taking law into their own hands"— Capt Amarinder Singh, Pradesh Congress Committee president