Hype over school uncalled for: Khaira

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Jalandhar, September 14

On a day when Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal was on a tour of Jalandhar with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira chose to launch an attack on the duo for allegedly trying to derive undue mileage from the opening of School of Eminence in Amritsar.

‘MP Bittu’s comments are his personal view’

On being asked to respond to the comments of Ludhiana Congress MP Ravneet Bittu on alliance with the AAP for the Lok Sabha elections, Khaira said, “These could be his personal comments. The top Punjab Congress leadership, including Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and PPCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, are clearly not in favour of the alliance. The cadre including the Congress sarpanches, who have been suppressed, cannot come out and ask people to vote for the AAP as an alliance partner. The Central leadership will look at it and decide on seat-sharing in Punjab accordingly.”

Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira said, “It is not me but the AAP MLA from Amritsar Kunwar Vijay Partap who has said that the government school at Chheharta that had been given a new status yesterday was already a smart school readied during the previous governments.” Showing screenshots of his comments on social media platform Facebook that were posted this morning, Khaira said, “The AAP MLA has said that this school had got the first major facelift initially during the tenure of communist leader and former MLA Satpal Dang. The results of the school had already been good. By undertaking just a small new renovation and giving it a new name of ‘School of Eminence’, the government has squandered a huge amount of public money on its grand opening.”

Khaira took out a media report that had appeared in July and read it out saying that according to the gradation system and performing index of schools across the country, Punjab was already at the top position for the past three years.

“The previous Congress government had brought it to the top position from 22nd in the country in 2017-18. But the AAP is unnecessarily trying to draw mileage by doing little and showing it all in a big way,” he said.

Khaira said that the AAP government, which had been claiming sufficient funds in its kitty, was compensating the flood-affected people minimally. “Mann had said that he would compensate for every hen or a goat lost in floods. Why are the people not being paid adequately now?” he asked, adding that the compensation for two previous crops, including cotton that was affected by pink bollworm and wheat that suffered untimely damage, was still pending.