Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today squarely blamed the Congress led UPA government for rampant corruption by its Union Ministers, who had amassed ill-gotten wealth disproportionate to their known assets, the amount of which was roughly equivalent to the seven times annual budget of the state.Addressing a public rally organized by the state BJP unit here today, the Chief Minister said that the UPA government has surpassed all the records of corruption and it would soon find mention in the ‘Guinness Book of World Record’. He said that gone are the days when only UPA Ministers were involved in the scams and scandal worth crores but now even their close relations were also neck deep in corruption. Badal said that it was a paradoxical situation that in the misrule of this government which had assumed power on the name of common man the unbridled corruption had increased the agonies of the poor people. He said that it was a shameful reality that in the tenure of this government the Ministers have shamelessly plundered the public money and even the pious field of sports has not been exempted from this open loot and illegal minting of the money adding that the multi crore CWG scam was a glaring example of it. The Chief Minister further said that it was the result of the anti-people policies of the Congress party which had ruled the country for the longest period so far that the nation was today confronting a number of social maladies like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and corruption. He said that exorbitant hike in the fuel prices coupled with the inflationary prices has broken the backbone of the common man due to which the countrymen were facing a lot of problems. Training guns at National General Secretary of the Congress . Rahul Gandhi who had launched a deliberate tirade against the SAD-BJP government through his frequent visits in the state by blowing the issue of drug addiction out of proportion, the Chief Minister asked Gandhi to introspect who was to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs. Badal replied in affirmative that none except Congress at helm of affairs was responsible for the deteriorating drug situation in the state due to its inept handling of this sensitive issue due to their political narrow interests. He reminded that it was the centre who exercised absolute control over border Security Force and other para-military forces manning the international border who have failed miserably in checking the inflow of drugs into the state. The Chief Minister questioned Gandhi the motive of his recent visit at Jalandhar as he didn’t raised any issue about Punjab and it seems that the development and prosperity of the state was the least priority of the Congress. He categorically said that the immature and novice approach of Rahul Gandhi would not help the Congress in any way in the coming Lok Sabha polls rather it would prove to be a shot in arm for SAD-BJP alliance because frequently he visits Punjab brighter are the chances for alliance to perform better at hustling. Making a scathing attack on the Congress party, the Chief Minister reiterated that it had always meted out a step motherly treatment to the opposition ruled states in general and that of Punjab in particular. He said that the Union Ministers belonging to the Congress are acting arbitrarily by perting the Central grants and projects to their home states whereas the other states are being deprived of their legitimate share of the central funds. ‘It was the height of discrimination that Punjab was wrongfully deprived off the drought relief fund despite of the fact that our farmers had suffered due to the late arrival of monsoon this year’ he added. Blaming the Centre for its apathetic attitude towards the state, the Chief Minister said that due to this attitude of the Union government the states are deprived of legitimate share of their grants, which ultimately hampers the process of development. He reiterated that the only solution for overcoming this undemocratic tendency was to implement the genuine Federal structure in the country, which was the need of the hour. However Badal said that it was unfortunate that instead of giving more power to the states the Union government was bent upon usurping their rights. The Chief Minister further said that well aware of the fact that technical education was vital for providing self-employment to the youth, the state government has decided to open four Mega skill training centres across the state. Likewise he said that in order to encourage the farmers for persification the state government has planned to reduce the area under paddy from 28 to 16 lakh hectares in a phased manner over a period of six years with alternate crops like Maize, sugarcane and cotton. Badal also said that the Kandi area has a lot of scope for the development of Agro-forestry and agro-food processing industry due to which the state government was laying special thrust on it. Earlier, the Chief Minister visited the residence of the SGPC Member late Jathedar Dilbagh Singh at Pathanakot, who passed away on Saturday after a prolonged illness. Sharing condolences with the family of the diseased . Badal played to Almighty to grant peace to the departed soul and strength to them to bear this irreparable loss. The rally was also addressed by Deputy Speaker Punjab Aseembly Dinesh Babbu, State BJP unit President and MLA Ashwani Kumar Sharma, MLA Seema Devi, Former MP Vinod Khanna, Kavita Khanna and BJP leader Swaran Salaria.