Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann this evening launched a sharp attack on the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) for allegedly ordering the removal of ID cards bearing his photograph from elderly pilgrims visiting Golden Temple, Amritsar, under the state’s Tirath Yatra scheme. He termed the move “illogical and vindictive”.
Addressing a ‘Lok Milni’ programme at Charik village in Moga, the Chief Minister said the ID cards had been issued to pilgrims, most of them elderly, purely to help identify and trace them in case they got separated amid the heavy rush at the shrine. He alleged that these cards were being removed at the direction of SAD(B), which he said continues to control gurdwara affairs, including parking arrangements, in the belief that the Badal family has exclusive authority over the Sikh Panth.
He said the sacrilege incidents of the past would never be forgotten by the people of Punjab, no matter how much the Akali leadership sought to project itself as custodians of the faith. “Their involvement in these incidents has led to their political decline,” he said.
Mann said the anti-sacrilege law brought in by his government would ensure such incidents are not repeated in the state.
He assured pilgrims that women whose cards were issued belatedly would still receive due arrears under Satkar Yojana and need not worry about the delay.
Listing his government’s initiatives, the Chief Minister said the scheme providing daytime electricity to farmers had transformed rural life by removing the fear of snakes and wild animals during night-time irrigation. He said encroached water distributaries had been reclaimed for farmers’ use and canal water was now reaching the tail end of the network.
Utilisation has risen from 22 per cent to 88 per cent following the laying of 14,000 km of pipelines and distributaries. He also claimed that corruption in government recruitment had been completely eliminated, asserting that 68,000 jobs had been provided in the state. He challenged critics to point to a single instance of corruption in recruitment over the past four-and-a-half years.
Turning to the Opposition, Mann said the SAD had been reduced to such a state that it could not even field candidates for all 117 Assembly seats, while its president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, was seeking another term despite the party’s record in five previous stints in power. He was equally scathing of the Congress, saying the party had more aspirants for the Chief Minister’s post than active workers, and that its leaders remained preoccupied with infighting in Delhi. He alleged that senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge could not even recall the name of the party’s state unit chief. Describing both parties as “guests at a wedding without a groom”, he said such parties often end up facing brickbats instead of celebration.
On the power situation, the Chief Minister claimed the state faced no shortage, with a 45-day coal reserve available for its thermal plants.
He also handed over cheques worth Rs 51 lakh to three panchayats of Charik village — Rs 19 lakh each to two panchayats and Rs 13 lakh to the third.
While inaugurating a private hospital in Moga town, the CM said the state currently has 990 Aam Aadmi Clinics, with 100 more coming up soon and 300 further planned. The clinics offer 46 tests and 126 medicines free of cost, and 5.5 crore OPD consultations have been recorded so far. He added that hospitals were being planned on the basis of disease-prevalence data collected from across the state.
He also said Punjab’s Sadak Suraksha Force, a state-specific initiative, now covers roads at 30-km intervals with an average response time of 5 minutes 20 seconds. Road accident deaths, which stood at over 5,000 in 2018, have dropped by 50 per cent as a result. He said 651 private and 221 government hospitals were currently providing free treatment to 42 lakh families under the state’s Rs 10 lakh health cover scheme.