Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal over his selective demand for development of Lambi saying that the Akali leader patently held a myopic view towards the state’s progress.
Capt Amarinder, reacting to Badal’s statement that the Chief Minister “…should come to Lambi with gifts for the people in the form of promises fulfilled…”, said that unlike the SAD veteran, he was the Chief Minister not just of Lambi but all of Punjab, even though he had the highest respect for the people of Lambi.
Badal continues to view Lambi as the only constituency in the state which deserves development, said Capt Amarinder while lambasting the former Chief Minister for his desperate and futile attempts to mislead the people and divert their attention from his own misdeeds of 10 years.
It was evident that Badal was only striving to further his own political ambitions by seeking sops for Lambi at the cost of the development of the rest of the state, he added.
Pointing out that Badal had not sought gifts for any other region of Punjab in the past 18 months, Capt Amarinder said that it showed that the former Chief Minister was least concerned about the people of the state except for those whom he needed for his election.
“I would soon visit Lambi to address the development requirements of the area but, at the same time, I will ensure finalization and execution of development plans for every part of the state,” he said.
On the issue of poll promises fulfilled by his government, the Chief Minister pointed out that within two days of coming to power, his Council of Ministers had approved 117 decisions to implement the promises made in the Congress manifesto.
Of these, 70 had been fully implemented and 11 were in the process of implementation, he said, challenging Badal to reveal the number of poll promises fulfilled by his government in the first year of coming to power in 2012.
Giving details of some of the important promises fulfilled by his government, Capt Amarinder said that debt relief of Rs 1735 crore had been provided to more than three lakh farmers, and the next installment of Rs 314 crore would soon be released for marginal farmers who had availed loans from commercial banks.