Punjab debate: Govt wasted Rs 30 crore on 'maha drama', says Partap Singh Bajwa

Chandigarh, November 1

Terming the ‘maha debate’ called by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann a ‘maha drama’, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab Government has again demonstrated its insincerity over the loot of Punjab’s river waters.

Bajwa said that a night before the debate, the Punjab CM through his X post changed the topic of the debate from the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal to four issues including drug abuse, growing gangsters and unemployment. The SYL issue was nowhere in that post, which wasn’t at all justified.

“It is highly deplorable that Punjab CM, who considers himself a flag-bearer of the Punjabi language, wrote his post in Hindi. Would he mind explaining to whom he wanted to convey the message in Hindi? With the post in Hindi, the CM wanted to tell the people of Haryana that AAP Punjab is not interested in discussing the SYL issue at all,” Bajwa asked.

Bajwa also criticised the Punjab CM for squandering Rs 30 crore of Punjab’s taxpayers on the publicity of this “maha drama”. Bajwa said that CM Mann had already prepared publicity material which would be run on several social media and TV news channels.

The Opposition leader said that each MLA belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party was given 50 passes to take their people to the debate hall, whereas the Opposition parties were deprived of this facility. They wanted their people to enter the debate hall only. As many as 1,200 people belonging to the ruling party were given entry to the debate hall at 9 am. “The malicious episode was scripted by AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, Sandeep Pathak, who has already backstabbed Punjab when he said that Haryana should be given its share of water,” Bajwa added.