Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday lambasted the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government for wasting funds meant for Centrally-sponsored schemes on the sangat darshan programme (public interaction) and bringing down Punjab from its No. 1 position to 12th position. Mrs Gandhi was addressing a public rally in support of Congress candidates at Gurdaspur.
Giving a clarion call, Mrs Gandhi has asked the people of Punjab to vote for the Congress party to see all-round development of the state. Mrs Gandhi said that even as the state has a debt of more than `65,000 crores, the Akali-BJP government has wasted Central funds on sangat darshan. Mrs Gandhi said: “There is a dismal picture of the health and education sectors as well as the general infrastructure in Punjab and if the Central funds were judiciously utilised, Punjab would have never have lost its glory.”
The Congress president said that the Union government was providing a lot of monetary assistance to the state government for developmental works but the Punjab government did not take pains for these programmes. Mrs Gandhi said that the funds given under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment, were not properly utilised.
Mrs Gandhi said that the “wrong” policies of the state government have affected the agriculture and industry of Punjab.
As a result, unemployment is increasing and youth are becoming victims of intoxication, she said.