Akali Dal, Congress took turns to ‘loot’ Punjab, alleges Bhagwant Mann
Says youth forced to immigrate as govt institutions undermined
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday accused the Congress and the SAD of “taking turns to loot the state”. He said it resulted in youngsters increasingly leaving the country for green pastures as government institutions “hollowed out”.
Reacting to it, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring questioned the AAP government’s performance since coming to power in 2022. “Four years have elapsed. What have you (AAP) done for children,” he asked. Mann levelled the allegation referring to frequent switching of ruling party in the past, with the Congress and SAD remaining dominant players.
Despite repeated attempts, senior SAD leaders and spokespersons, including Daljeet Singh Cheema and Arshdeep Singh Kler, remained unavailable for comments.
The CM was in Ajnala’s Bikraur village — about three kilometres from the India-Pakistan border — to lay the stone for a government degree college. The college will be built at Rs 15 crore.
He was accompanied by former Delhi Deputy CM and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, Punjab Ministers Harjot Bains and Harbhajan Singh ETO. The college will be named after Baba Gumchuk Maharaj, a saint from the area. Terming both parties as “looters”, he said they “colluded with each other for decades to deprive the state of any development”.
“The AAP government will complete its four years on March 16. It is still a year to go for the Assembly elections and they are already fighting for whose turn it is next. They want to loot the state,” he said mocking the Opposition parties. “The previous governments hollowed out state’s institutions, forcing our children to leave the country in search of a better future,” he added. The Chief Minister claimed that earlier several families in Ajnala villages were “hesitant to allow” their daughters to pursue higher education as there was no degree college here.
“Safety of girls was a concern. Now, the youth of 50 nearby villages will benefit from this college, which is expected to enrol more than 2,000 students in coming years,” said Mann.
Sisodia termed the initiative a “pioneering step towards empowering the youth in border areas”. “It is unfortunate that there was no college within a radius of 70 km in Ajnala. The long-standing demand of people has been fulfilled today,” he said.
