Amritsar, Sep 23 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday questioned the AAP government’s ‘Mann da Munafa’ claims, saying it was nothing but a repackaging of social welfare benefits extended to Punjabis by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Badal said all the schemes which Mann is taking credit for were started by the erstwhile SAD government.
These include schemes like ‘Atta-daal’, ‘Shagun’, old age pension and Tirath Yatra, he said.
Badal was speaking after addressing a ‘Punjab Bachao’ rally in Jandiala Guru.
A few days ago, Mann pitched his government’s ‘Mann da Munafa’ narrative, claiming that every family is receiving an annual benefit of Rs 1.82 lakh from its welfare initiatives like free electricity.
Badal said it was a “shame” that even these schemes, which the AAP government was publicising as their own, had been “diluted” under Mann’s stewardship.
He said while the earlier SAD government used to give 30 kg of wheat under the ‘Aata-daal’ scheme, the same had been reduced to five kg. He said the number of beneficiaries had also been reduced under this scheme as well as the old age pension scheme.
The SAD president said this was not all. He claimed that the AAP government had stopped giving free cycles to girl students of Class 11 and 12.
“Free chemist shops have also been shut down. Sports kits are not distributed in villages any longer.
“Gyms established by the SAD government have been closed down. Even RO plants supplying clean water and Suvidha Kendras and Sanjh Kendras, which had cut red tape tremendously, have also been shut down,” claimed Badal.
Asserting that it was “Mann de Karname” which people were talking about and not “Mann da Munafa”, he alleged that the chief minister had presided over the “complete breakdown” of the law and order machinery with two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) being killed in the space of one month even as 20 police stations had faced bomb blasts.
The SAD president also took on the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De party, claiming that it was functioning as the “B team of AAP”.
Badal alleged that the drug menace had increased during the AAP rule.
“This is because AAP leaders have patronised drug traffickers and do not allow the police to proceed against them as they are receiving ‘monthlies’ from the traffickers”, he alleged.
Asserting that safeguarding the interests of the youth was paramount now, especially with foreign countries also restricting entry of Punjabis, Badal said “skill development is most important”.
He said SAD was committed to establishing skill universities in each district in which corporate giants would be encouraged to give specific training and certification to the youth so that they could find gainful employment.
Laying out his action plan if the SAD is voted to power, Badal said all farmers without a tubewell connection would be given the same within one month of formation of the SAD government.
He said beneficiaries would be given 50 kg wheat under the ‘Atta-daal’ scheme, and the Shagun benefit would be increased to Rs 1 lakh and old age pension to Rs 3,100 per month.
Badal also announced that youth would be eligible for a Rs 10 lakh loan for entrepreneurship and a 75 per cent subsidy would be given for the purchase of milch animals. PTI CHS KSS
KSS
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