Capt contests Sukhbir’s development claims
Monday, 07/03/2016
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday ridiculed the claims of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal about how his government had performed in the past nine years.
“Given the quantum and the record of lies to his credit, Sukhbir has put to shame even Joseph Goebbels (propaganda minister in Nazi Germany), who believed that repeating a lie would make it sound true,” Amarinder said in a statement here, referring to Sukhbir’s claims in full-page advertisements lauding achievements of the Akali-BJP government.
On Sukhbir’s claims of having multiplied revenue from where the Congress government of 2002-07 had left it, Amarinder said the Akali-BJP government had increased the value-added tax (VAT) from 2% during his tenure to 6-to-15% on different items. “The collector rates increased 5 times along with the change-of-land use charges. The government is also not taking into account the inflation over these years,” he said.
The collector rates at some places now were more than the market price of the land, said the state Congress president, adding: “Development has come to a standstill and real-estate prices have fallen by more than 70%. Still Sukhbir is trying to make people believe that all is well.” He said the main source of revenue was the manufacturing sector, which in the last nine years had hit a declining path with the flight of the industry or its shutting down in Punjab.
“The gover nment has no industrial policy. At best, it is indifferent, and at worst, hostile towards industry,” he added.
