Amarinder lashes out at Sukhbir, Harsimrat for misleading people over crop loan, GST

Amritsar, Aug 17 : Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today lashed out at Akali leaders Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal for misleading people of the state on crop loan waiver, GST on langar, and other issues, and challenged them to list out a single meaningful achievement of their party’s rule in the state. Lambasting the husband-wife duo for ruining the state with their ill-conceived policies and visionless programmes, the Chief Minister told mediapersons here, after inaugurating the Partition Museum, that the Akalis, in the 10 years of their rule, had brought the state to its knees. Sukhbir and his coterie had ruined the state and its assets, thus depriving Punjab of its pristine pride and glory. He hit out at Shiromani Akali Dal president Mr Badal for questioning the Congress Government's four-month rule, challenging him to explain what he they had done for Punjab in the past decade. He urged Mr Badal to introspect about what the Akali Government had given to Punjab, and added that his own Government had, in just four months, taken several historic welfare measures for the state and its people. To a question on GST exemption on Langar and Prasad, Capt Singh said he had taken up this issue with the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and would pursue the same. The matter pertained to the Centre and the Union Food Processing Minister should get the langars exempted from GST instead of putting the onus on the State Government, he added. In response to a question on the Haq Committee report, the Chief Minister pointed out that his Government had already waived off debts of 10.25-lakh small and marginal farmers in the state. The Haq Committee was now working on some other key issues concerning the farming community and would soon submit its final report. He accused the Akalis and other political opponents of trying to mislead people on the issue in order to promote their vested interests. Earlier, the Chief Minister paid floral tributes to Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra on his martyrdom day near Bharawan Da Dhaba. UNI