Dubbing the SAD’s Bathinda MP and the Union Minister Harsimrat Badal as a “compulsive liar with no shame in pedalling even religion for her petty political gains”, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday came down heavily on the Badal bahu for her “blatant falsehood” on a sensitive issue like the langar prasad of the Golden Temple Amritsar.

Reacting strongly to Harsimrat’s allegations that the State Government had reneged from its commitment of paying its share in the GST to Harmandar Sahib, the Chief Minister trashed the same as yet another bunch of lies reflecting the Union Minister’s “perverse mentality, which seemed to take pleasure from befooling and misleading the people”.

“Bereft of any meaningful political issue to fight the upcoming Assembly bypolls in the state, Harsimrat, and the rest of the Akali leadership, are once again resorting to outright fabrications in a desperate bid to deceive the people, who had repeatedly rejected them since the 2017 Assembly elections in the state,” said Capt Amarinder.

Capt Amarinder pointed out that the State Government had not only notified 100 percent GST refund for Punjab’s share in respect of Darbar Sahib, Durgiana Mandir, Amritsar and Valmik Sthal, Ram Tirath, Amritsar but had allocated a whopping Rs four crore to Amritsar Deputy Commissioner in May this year for the same.

The Chief Minister reiterated his Government’s commitment to refunding the state’s share of the GST not just for the current year but with effect from August 1, 2017, for all the three holy shrines.

Capt Amarinder said that the amount of Rs four crore was allotted to the DC by Revenue Department after the requisite budgetary approvals were taken from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the Budget Session and the Finance Department had relaxed its guidelines of quarterly releases.

To ensure a seamless and smooth transfer of funds, the entire estimated budget was placed at DC’s disposal so that he did not need to keep pursuing with the state headquarters at every stage, said the Chief Minister, adding that Harsimrat deliberately chose to keep these crucial facts from the people to further the Akali political and electoral agenda.

He added that the state Financial Commissioner, Revenue, had been directed to coordinate with the state Excise and Taxation Department, the Finance Department, Accountant General, Punjab, the SGPC authorities, as well as the Deputy Commissioner Amritsar, to ensure that the outstanding payments are cleared as expeditiously as possible.

The FCR had also been instructed to ensure a timely and seamless refund of the GST to all the three sacred institutions in future, said Capt Amarinder, asking Harsimrat to stop shaming herself with her lies if she had any respect for herself and her religion.

“With these falsehoods, Harsimrat was evidently trying to claw her party’s way back into the Punjab electoral scene, from which the Akalis had virtually disappeared in the past three years or so,” said the Chief Minister.

And this was not the first time the Union Minister had stooped to such low levels to promote her personal and party agenda, he added, pointing to her fabrications over other sensitive issues such as Kartarpur Corridor, Jallianwala Bagh massacre and SYL.

The Chief Minister expressed shock at the shamelessness with which Harsimrat continued to indulge in falsehoods despite being exposed as a fraud every time. The least she can do is keep religion out of her small-time politicking, he added.