Amritsar– Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said its legal wing had been successful in securing freedom for more than forty youth who had been implicated in false cases even he appealed to the party rank and file to double efforts to ensure Sikh youth were not persecuted on trivial charges.
Addressing a press conference here, the SAD president said Sikh youth had been provided legal aid due to which they had secured bail in cases emanating from Malout, Barnala, Ajnala and Baba Bakala. He said the party was working pro-actively to ensure the youth were not incarcerated in jail for sharing emotional social media posts.
Asking the AAP government not to resort to draconian crackdowns against Sikh youth, Mr Sukhbir Badal said summary arrests without adequate reason would create fissures in society and would eventually result in breakdown of peace and communal harmony.
Stating that the mismanagement of the law and order situation had affected Punjab adversely, Mr Badal said “not only have we lost industrial investment in the State but even home grown industry is migrating to other States”. He said in stark contrast the period of peace and communal harmony during the erstwhile S Parkash Singh Badal led governments had resulted in massive infrastructure creation be it road or the air network besides strides made in making Punjab power surplus. He said the AAP government led by Bhagwant Mann had not only frittered away these accomplishments but had stopped development work altogether. “We have a chief minister who shifts from one State to another to spread his boss Arvind Kejriwal’s agenda. Now he is focusing on Madhya Pradesh which goes to the polls later this year instead of working for the welfare of Punjabis”.
Meanwhile Mr Badal disclosed that this was the third crop in a row which had been affected due to natural calamity. He said farmers had not been paid compensation for losses suffered while raising their paddy and cotton crops. “Now the State has witnessed major damage to the wheat crop due to hail storms and heavy rains. The government should release compensation of Rs 50, 000 per acre to all farmers whose wheat crop has been severely damaged due to the inclement weather”. He said the Punjab government should also take up the case for declaring the recent hail storms and even a tornado in the State as a natural disaster and ensure release of funds to compensate farmers for the damage suffered by them.
Answering a question, Mr Badal said the Lok Sabha Speaker had acted in haste in disqualifying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and that this did not bode well for a democracy. He said even though the SAD was opposed to the policies of the Congress party as well as Rahul Gandhi, it felt that due time should have been given to Gandhi to appeal his disqualification. “The system should be allowed to do its job and disrupting it points to a dictatorial trend”, he added.