Chandigarh, June 7: The Punjab Congress President, Mr. Partap Singh Bajwa, today ridiculed the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, for his claim of honest business dealings for the phenomenal growth of his assets during the last few years saying how come this had always coincided with the period whenever his father, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, had become the Chief Minister. He also challenged him on the issue of drug smuggling under patronage of the Akali leaders.
Mr. Bajwa said what was all the more interesting was the fact that while the economic crisis in Punjab had been deepening every day, only the income of the Badal family had been multiplying at this exponential rate. He pointed out while the fleet of the Badal buses, including the super luxury ones, had expanded unlike the business of any other private company, the number of Punjab Roadways had gone down in the same proportion.
Mr. Bajwa said what was all the more interesting was the fact that while the economic crisis in Punjab had been deepening every day, only the income of the Badal family had been multiplying at this exponential rate. He pointed out while the fleet of the Badal buses, including the super luxury ones, had expanded unlike the business of any other private company, the number of Punjab Roadways had gone down in the same proportion.
He pointed out as per the information obtained by Dr. Jasdeepak Singh, Converner RTI Cell of PPCC under RTI, Punjab Roadway and PRTC is running in huge losses as per below:-
Years | (Rs. In Lac) PRTC Losses | (Rs. In Lac) Punjab Roadways Losses |
2006-07 | -821.31 | -7712.00 |
207-08 | -268.29 | -5987.13 |
2008-09 | -199.16 | -7564.56 |
2009-10 | -347.34 | -7262.81 |
2010-11 | -1345.58 | -7421.79 |
2011-12 | -238.93 | -9711.25 |
2012-13 | -1096.87 | -9996.82 |
2013-14 (Upto 1/14) | -7557.15 |
The number of state transport buses had come down to 451 in January, 2014 from 866 in 2006-07 which was almost half. It has been the Akali Dal government in power all these years. Similar was the situation with the other state transport, the PRTC. Both these organisations have been running in huge losses while the transport business of Badals flourished at their cost.
“I have no reason to doubt Mr. Sukhbir Badal’s claims but would like to ask was the management of a major transport company you took over voluntarily opted for this generosity showered on you or could not resist the pressure and gave in as it had been in the air for more than a year that you were resorting to arm twisting to take over that company that used to ply luxury buses to Indira Gandhi international airport from various cities of Punjab? Bilkul theek ki thaggi maran di lor nahin, arm twisting is enough”, he added.
Commenting upon the drug smuggling, he said the BJP learnt the bitter reality about the gravity of the drug menace and the political patronage to the smugglers perhaps in Amritsar which had been attributed as the major reason for the defeat of the party stalwart, Mr. Arun Jaitley.
“In case the BJP is making baseless allegations about political patronage to the multi-crore drug racket in the state, the two parties have no business to continue in alliance. The names have been made public by smugglers like Jagdish Bhola and Raj Kandhola”, he said.
Mr. Bajwa said it was really strange that the Deputy Chief Minister had blamed the media hype for the image of the state being a state of the drug addicts reminding him that the addicts had met the Chief Minister at Talwandi Sabo during his latest sangat darshan programme pleading with him to legalise the sale of narcotics on the pattern of neighbouring Rajasthan. It was too well known to the BJP as to whom the Deputy Chief Minister was trying to protect.
He challenged the Deputy Chief Minister on illegal sanding mining saying the same had been monopolised by the Akali leaders and the state government had created artificial scarcity to jack up prices by not putting up the case properly for environmental clearance of mines. It was too well known a fact that the BJP ministers had little say over the departments allocated to them. Would Mr. Sukhbir Badal deny the fact that it was he who had announced the new industrial policy while the Industries Minister, Mr. Anil Joshi from the BJP, was sitting on the side-lines.