The Punjab Congress has hit out at the Badals for splurging public money on a birthday bash for the chief minister while the beneficiaries of their much-touted atta dal scheme are still waiting for their quota, eight months on.The shameful apathy of the Badals to the plight of the poor people of the state seems to know no bounds, the Punjab Congress said in a statement here on Wednesday, following media reports that over one crore beneficiaries of the scheme will not get their 8-month quota of subsidized pulses as the state government has failed to provide funds.While the common people of the state, already reeling under a mega cash crisis on account of demonetisation, continue to wait endlessly for basic essentials such as dal and atta, the Akali government has opened its coffers for the birthday celebrations of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Moga on December 8.Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) leaders Dr. Malti Thapar, Col Babbu Singh and Dr. Tara Singh Sandhu lamented the shocking manner in which the entire official machinery of the state has been leveraged to make the Moga rally, which the government is trying hard to camouflage as an anti-SYL battle, a success. This is despite the fact that the state’s exchequer is virtually empty, thanks to the open loot and plundering unleashed by the Badal government over the last 10 years of its `jungle raj’ in Punjab, they pointed out.
Exorbitant expenditure has already been incurred by the government on massive hoardings, advertisements and other publicity material, as well as arrangements at the rally ground, in gross violation of all norms, the PPCC leaders pointed out, adding that the brazen misuse of official machinery and public funds by the Badals in their last few days in office was plunging the state towards inevitable bankruptcy.The PPCC leaders said once the Congress comes to power in the state, not only will tea and sugar be added to the atta-dal scheme as promised by party president Captain Amarinder Singh, but there would be no laxity in its stringent implementation to ensure that the benefits percolate down to the actual beneficiaries without fail or delay.The abuse of authority by the Badals is also manifest in the speed with which appointments and transfers are being made before the imposition of the Code of Conduct for the forthcoming Assembly elections, the PPCC leaders said.They referred to a media report to point out that as many as 96 Akalis have been parked in welfare boards in unabashed violation of norms ahead of the polls. Plum administrative and police transfers and postings are also being handed over by the Badals to their loyalists as the elections draw closer, they added.The Badal government is doing everything in its power to give bounties to its supporters while the common man in Punjab is fighting desperately to make both ends meet, the Punjab Congress leaders added.