Navjot Sidhu blames Punjab government for 'mounting debt', says AAP sustaining on Rs 100 crore per day loan

Aman Sood

Patiala, March 4

Punjab Congress leader Navjot Sidhu on Monday took a dig at the AAP government in Punjab claiming that the “Punjab government is taking a loan of Rs 100 crore per day” to run its populist schemes and challenged CM Bhagwant Mann for a face-to-face debate to be “telecast live on social media”.

Ahead of the Punjab budget, Sidhu claimed that the Punjab government should inform people about the debt on the state and every citizen of the state.

Addressing a press conference at his residence here, Sidhu said the AAP government had failed on the law and order front in the state and murders of sportsmen, common people, businessmen, industrialists and singers is the new norm.

“People are not safe. While the chief minister and his wife have a cavalcade of luxury SUVs, the Punjab residents are left at the mercy of anti-social elements. Law and order is one big reason along with the rising debt of the state that the youth is rushing abroad,” said Sidhu.

“While the chief minister announced Rs 1 crore and a job to a deceased farmer recently, he did not even visit the family of anyone murdered by gangsters because the farmers are a vote bank but the common citizens are not,” Sidhu claimed.

“Instead, the chief minister should have stood by the farmers when the Haryana cops were firing at them. He should have asked his policemen to stop the Haryana cops from firing on unarmed farmers who were protesting peacefully for a just cause,” he said.

Calling the upcoming Punjab budget a sham, Sidhu alleged that the government was sustaining on a Rs 100-crore loan per day and has failed to bring any money from liquor, mining and cable which is now “controlled by the mafia backed by the government”.

“The chief minister should answer why sand is still expensive. Moreover, who is pocketing the liquor L-1 profits. He should expose the leaders controlling the cable mafia,” Sidhu said.