‘Cong rally referendum against BJP’
Wednesday, 21/01/2015
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AMRITSAR: Senior Congress leader and coordinator for the party’s “Lalkar Rally”, Rana Gurjeet Singh on Tuesday said here that it would be a referendum as much against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as against the Akalis, as both are responsible for all the ills Punjab was mired in.
“Rather, in certain cases, the BJP is more responsible than the Akalis, as their ministers are in charge of the important ministries where, if they wished, they could have done something good for people instead of prostrating before the chief minister and his deputy in meek submission,” he said, while reviewing the arrangements for the rally coming up on Saturday.
The Kapurthala legislator said the BJP couldn’t put all the blame on the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) when the saffron ministers in charge of health, industries and local bodies couldn’t prevent the collapse of the health and industrial sectors, and give people basic civic amenities such as clean drinking water.
He said the main problem in Punjab was not smuggled opium or heroin but the local-made synthetic drugs. “The industries department led by a BJP minister should be held accountable for the manufacturing of synthetic drugs in pharmaceutical units that are in its purview,” said the Kapurthala legislator. The health ministry, he said, had failed to prevent the sale and supply of synthetic drugs through medical stores.
The Congress leader said the mafia’s monopolising sand mining had shot up the prices of this construction material, and if the industries department wanted, it could have stopped it.
“If the BJP claims that its hands are clean, then it should accept that its ministers did not have any real power to run their ministries. In that case, they should quit,” said Rana Gurjeet Singh.”
