Amarinder corners Badal govt over foodgrain scam

Wednesday, 12/10/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=166390&boxid=59057&uid=&dat=2016-10-12

Chandigarh : Hitting out at the Badals over the alleged multi-crore foodgrains scam, state Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday vowed to recover every penny of the public money from the “corrupt Badal and company” once the party came back to power in the state.

“We will make sure that the money stolen by the Badals is brought back into the state’s coffers once we are back in reign. We shall not hesitate to initiate legal action against the Badals,” he said here.

The senior Congress leader alleged that the Badals have been looting the state ever since they formed the government in 2007 and the scam was their “crowning glory” in corruption, while condemning the SAD government’s attempts to cover up the scandal by converting it into a loan.

He said when he took over the reins of the state from the Akalis in 2002, Punjab’s outstanding Central debt amounted to Rs 4,500 crore.

It is only since the Badals came back to power that the state has again been plunged into an intense debt trap, Singh said.

The PCC chief claimed that with the latest Rs 30,000 crore loan from RBI restructured, the state will reel under a debt burden of Rs 50,000 crore for the next 20 years.

“I will not allow the Badals to get away with it. Nobody involved in the scam will be spared at any cost,” Singh said.

Cong to launch door-to-door farmers’ outreach programme

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh will launch the party’s door-to-door drive under its mega farmers’ outreach programme in the poll-bound state on Wednesday.

Under the programme, the senior Congress leader will visit the homes of farmers at Kot Surat Malhi in Gurdaspur on Wednesday, a party release said here on Tuesday.

Armed with ‘kisan jholas’, Singh will reach out to a total of 2 crore people through the drive ending on October 25, it said, adding that the PCC chief has already set stringent targets for 600 party workers to take the campaign forward.

The ‘kisan jholas’ will contain maangpatras (proformas), mobile stickers, badges, door stickers etc.

“The maangpatra will capture the household details and the farmers’ outstanding debt,” the release stated.

The programme ‘Karza-Kurki Khatam, Fasal Di Poori Rakam’ is aimed at connecting with the farmers of the state at the grassroots level, and giving assurance of debt waiver and resolution of other problems faced by the them on priority basis if Congress came back to power, it said.

Apart from the door-to-door visits, Amarinder will visit several ‘mandis’, including the Dana mandis at Batala Road (Fatehgarh Churian), Kalanaur, Batala and Dera Baba Nanak, as well as Ghaniyae Ke Bet mandi across the Ravi bridge.