Amarinder files papers, says Congress fighting polls on his achievements
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Jan, 2022 11:52 AM
Chandigarh, Jan 31 (IANS) Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday set the ball rolling for his party's electoral debut with a call to party workers to take on the mantle to save the state's future from nefarious interests, while accusing the Congress of fighting these Assembly elections on his government's achievements of four-and-a-half years.
Addressing PLC workers after filing his nomination papers from Patiala Urban, the former chief minister trashed Charanjit Channi's tall claims of delivering on the Congress promises in 111 days, pointing out that everything that he was claiming as his personal achievement "was accomplished by my government, including creation of jobs, action social welfare schemes, free bus travel for women and farmers' debt waiver."
Even in the sacrilege and drugs cases, in which he was accused of failing to take action as a pretext to remove him from chief ministership, it was his government that had initiated strong steps to take matters head on, pointed out Capt Amarinder. His government, he noted, had fought hard, right up to the Supreme Court, to get the sacrilege cases back from the CBI, leading to 19 officers, including ex-DGP Sumedh Saini, being booked.
As for the drugs cases, the PLC leader declared that it was his government that successfully broke the backbone of the drugs mafia, leading to the arrest of more than 40,000, including many big fish.
But it would be naive to believe that drugs can be completely wiped out anywhere in the world, and more so in a border state like Punjab where Pakistan was pushing in drugs almost every day, he added.
Pointing to the unequivocal support he had extended to the farmers during their agitation, the former chief minister said despite blockades at 137 places across the state his government had taken no action as he was cognizant of the concerns of the farmers.
Lauding the eventual revocation of the farm laws, he noted that never had it happened before that the prime minister of a country had apologised for any policy decision, as was done by Narendra Modi while withdrawing the legislations.
Promising to change the face of Punjab with the support of the government at the Centre, led by PLC ally - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the former chief minister said with the Narendra Modi government set to remain at the Centre for at least another seven years, PLC could transform the state with their support if voted to power.
"Punjab's economy is in a bad shape, it is reeling under huge debt, and needs financial support from the Centre, he stressed, adding that the future of the state's students, youth, farmers and others was at stake and need close Centre-State coordination to save.
His government gave 22 lakh jobs, education standards were raised, the state got Rs 1 lakh crore worth of industrial investment in four-and-a-half years, but much more was needed to be done to put Punjab back to being number one in the country, said Capt Amarinder.
Inaugurating his party office in Patiala, Capt Amarinder said, as in the past, he was leaving the fight for this seat to the workers here, while he would go into battle for PLC and its allies in other parts of the state.
Earlier, Union Minister and BJP poll in-charge for Punjab, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who accompanied Capt Amarinder at the filing of the nomination papers, asserted that the BJP-PLC alliance will make history in all 117 seats, including Patiala, since the security of the state and the country were paramount for the people of Punjab.
In India more than 23,000 people have, or have had, the new coronavirus, central health ministry data showed on Friday. More than 700 of those infected have died -- a dreadful total, but a relatively low number compared to fatalities in other countries facing outbreaks. India is currently under an extended lockdown til May 3rd that was imposed last month to contain the spread of the virus, which is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets.
Two people have been arrested for attacking prominent journalist Arnab Goswami and his wife. A FIR has been registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police station. Goswami in his complaint to the police has alleged that he and his wife were attacked by Youth Congress workers when they were driving back home from the Republic TV Headquarters in Worli.
A "major digital transformation" is coming to a one of fastest developing countries in the world. Facebook is committed to "opening commerce opportunities for people across India", founder Mark Zuckerberg said this morning, a day after the social media powerhouse invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd-owned mobile telecom company Reliance Jio.
The men accused of killing three men in Palghar have been arrested and are in jail. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on he has spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and assured him that he would look into the case. More than 100 people are in custody. The attack took place at a spot close to Mumbai.
Covid-19 death toll has reached 507 deaths in India while confirmed cases surpassed 15,000. On Sunday 44 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in Rajasthan, while in Agra 45 more cases were confirmed. In Lucknow, 43 more people tested positive for the virus.
Tablighi Jamaat, the global organisation of Islamic missionaries, which may be the biggest carrier of Covid-19 infection in India, has had a long history of ties with Pakistan-based banned terror outfits like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
