Sukhbir Badal accuses govt functionaries of minting money at fag-end of term

BATHINDA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday accused the Congress government in Punjab of minting money at the fag-end of their rule, "knowing well that they are not returning to power".
He also accused the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government of misleading the people by making large claims of providing various benefits by announcing sops and said that these sops are just for political gain as all the reliefs, be it lowering power tariff or lowering VAT on petroleum products, is only up to March 31.
"By making such announcements only for a few months, the Congress wants to reap political gains and will withdraw all the reliefs after the elections," said Sukhbir Badal, adding that benefits provided by the SAD are lifelong.
Sukhbir was addressing a protest outside the Bathinda District Administrative Complex (DAC). Such dharnas were held at various districts on the issues of farming, including terming compensation for damage to cotton crop due to pink bollworm attack as inadequate, and non availability of Di-Ammonia Phosphate (DAP).
The SAD chief said that with a "clever motive", the ministries of excise and taxation were separated and "the money spinning department was kept by the CM".Likewise, the mining department was separated from the ministry of industry and here too the money-spinning department was kept by him, Sukhbir said, adding that the Ghar Ghar Naukri has surely been implemented but only in giving jobs to kin of ministers and MLAs.
Turning towards farming issues, Sukhbir served an ultimatum and gave one week to the Congress government to find a solution to the DAP shortage.