Oppn gets chance to intensify attack on govt

Saturday, 12/09/2015

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/

Chandigarh : With Prime Minister Narendra Modi offering nothing significant to the state during his visit here today, the Opposition, especially the Congress, had got now enough ammunition to attack the SAD-BJP alliance in the state.

Had the Prime Minister announced some package to the state, it would have provided the alliance a shield against the Opposition attack.

Firing the first salvo, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Sunil Jakhar said, “Badal should apologise to the beleaguered farmers of Punjab for having failed to secure any help for them from Modi.”

Joining him in the political attack, Peoples’ Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal said that Modi did not even recognise Punjab’s claim over the international airport.

“Sukhbir should have the guts to admit that it is an addition to the existing Chandigarh airport with equal contribution from Haryana and the Airport Authority having 51 per cent stake,” Manpreet said.

Talking about the gratitude expressed by Chief Minister Badal for implanting cooperative federalism, Manpreet said that one fails to understand what Punjab had so far gained from cooperative federalism when the state has been a loser in the matter of curtailment of central financial assistance despite hike in the state share from 32 to 42 per cent.

He said that state Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa had said this on record.

Punjab was expecting a package for the farm sector crisis. However, the PM made no commitment in this regard. The PM did not even make a mention of the Swaminathan report, the implementation of which used to his theme song in predominantly agricultural states like Punjab and Haryana before the Lok Sabha elections last year.

Even more interesting is the observation that the Akali leadership has stopped emphasising the transfer of Chandigarh and river waters dispute in the rallies addressed by PM Modi. For decades, the transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas has been a political theme song of the SAD leadership.

Modi did not even refer to the long list of demands recently submitted to him by the CM.

The PM, however, stated that the Centre had raised the compensation for crop damage and lowered crop damage percentage to 33 per cent from 50 per cent to claim the compensation.

But Punjab was hoping for something big in the form of an overall package for diversification in the farm sector, repair of canals and refund of paid instalments of special term loan of the militancy period etc.

It will be a hard task for the SAD-BJP alliance to defend itself in the days to come as the state has got nothing from the PM during this visit.