Chandigarh, Sep 26 Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar on Saturday accused the AAP government of lying about its Rs 750 crore scheme for development of villages with more than 40 per cent Scheduled Caste population, saying that the funds were actually being provided by the Centre.
He said the newspaper advertisements touting it as a state government scheme were “fraudulent.”
The money is actually being provided under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana, Jakhar told mediapersons here.
It is a 100 per cent Centrally funded scheme; the Union government bears the entire cost, and the Punjab government makes no financial contribution, the state BJP chief said.
The scheme has operated in its present form since 2020-21, he said.
On September 24, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced a Rs 750 crore programme for the holistic and inclusive development of 3,763 villages, where the Scheduled Caste population exceeds 40 per cent.
Jakhar said the 3,763 Punjab villages were identified under the Central scheme. The Centre has already sent funds for 1,200 villages and is expected to release funds for the remaining villages soon.
Showing advertisements about the scheme bearing Mann’s photograph, Jakhar said it is “the height of shamelessness” and reflected the Punjab chief minister’s desire to publicise his image.
The state government has done nothing to develop Punjab’s villages, but is spending public money on advertisements to claim credit for a Central scheme, he alleged, demanding that the Punjab government apologise.
On the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Jakhar said the protests by the Congress and AAP were aimed at attracting newspaper headlines.
If these parties had complaints about deleted votes, why did they not file objections with the Election Commission, he asked.
He claimed that 20,000 votes were deleted in the Abohar area, but neither the Congress nor AAP filed a single objection with the Election Commission.
The BJP leader said 20,66,635 votes were deleted during the SIR exercise in Punjab. Of this, 5,74,568 voters had died; 4,12,715 were absent; 9,44,131 had permanently moved; and 1,19,145 were duplicate voters.
He said the Election Commission provided enough time for voters to file objections and get their names restored. Objections concerning discrepancies in the names on the voter list were also being accepted and corrected.
Jakhar said the Congress party’s Friday protest was “drama”.
Calling the SIR exercise a clean-up of the electoral rolls, he urged anyone with an objection to submit an application.
Punjab Congress, led by state unit chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, staged a protest on Friday demanding the dismissal and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for allegedly subverting and sabotaging the electoral process in the country.
Replying to a question on BJP leader and former chief minister Amarinder Singh’s statement, Jakhar said he was a big admirer of Singh, but only he can explain what he said.
On Friday, Singh said it was his duty to tell his party (BJP) what he felt about Punjab, and that did not mean he was quitting the party.
When asked why he was upset with the BJP, Singh said, “I have spent 60 years in Punjab politics. Some people came after us and have not even been there for a year… We have seen the situation in Punjab over all these years, but they have not even asked us.
(PTI News)
