Accusing the Congress-led state government of being at war with itself, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President and Lok Sabha MP Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed that Punjab is facing a situation far worse than militancy owing to the “utter collapse of the government machinery”. Accusing Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh of seeking publicity through videos on social media, Badal said that the administratively paralyzed state was headed to collapse.
Stating that the government is being run by the liquor mafia for “liquor loot”, Badal said that rather than fighting unitedly against COVID-19, the Cabinet and bureaucrats were fighting over spoils. He alleged that the Punjab government was using the COVID-19 crisis to legalise liquor smuggling under the garb of home delivery. Badal, while addressing the media on Tuesday, said that as the state was embarrassed nationally owing to the ugly spats between Chief Secretary Karan Avtaar Singh and the Cabinet over alleged conflict of interest in “liquor loot”, the state should book them and launch a probe.
“It’s shameful that the ministers and top bureaucrats behave like kindergarten kids. It was surprising that the state government has not held a single Cabinet meeting on fulfilling the needs of the farmers, labourers, shopkeepers, employees, business, trade and industry, and the only meeting held was to discuss who will rule the liquor game. That shows the priorities of the government,” Badal said. He further said that liquor smuggling is the biggest scam of the state, and if the chief secretary and the Cabinet accuse each other, the matter should be probed. The CM cannot sit and watch while the state suffers, he added.
“The debate in the country is about home delivery of food and essential goods, the Punjab ministers are debating home delivery of liquor,” Badal said.
His views found support in senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa who took to social media to say that even he suspected a government contractor nexus leading to exchequer losses.
Tagging the chief minister and his political rival Captain Amarinder Singh on Twitter, Bajwa tweeted, “The Excise Dept of Punjab has missed revenue targets for three successive years. The missed targets amounts to thousands of crores in losses to the exchequer…”
“As Punjab is in a precarious financial position due to the mismanagement of funds by the previous regime, one would have hoped, that excise being a money spinner for the State, would be the #1 priority in achieving revenue targets,” he said in another tweet.
Bajwa said that the government has “constantly failed in meeting these targets”, and the only answer to this is that there is “something wrong” within the department.
Urging the chief minister to launch an investigation into the allegations raised by a sitting Congress MLA on the conflict of interest against the chief secretary, Bajwa said that he should either be fired or cleared of all charges. He also called for an inquiry into the functioning of the excise department, conflict of interest, illegal distilleries and cross border smuggling.
“As excise department comes under your purview, a fair inquest needs to be initiated by you as we promised a clean and transparent governance,” he tweeted.
