Ridiculing the foundation laying for an AC bus stand by Harsimrat Badal in Bathinda on Tuesday, the Punjab Congress said the Badals were living in a delusional world with their grandiose schemes and plans, which had absolutely no relevance for the suffering people of the state.From the Harike water cruise to the Sukhvilas resorts, and the hop-on-hop-off bus service, and now the AC bus stand, the extravagant schemes and projects which the Badals had been launching left, right and centre, over the past few days, showed that they were totally disconnected from the ground realities of Punjab, whose people did not have access to even basic transport.“With not enough buses plying on the road, and a rotten transport system that is controlled by the Badals, the people of Punjab find it difficult to commute for their daily needs,” Punjab Congress leaders pointed out, asking, “What will they do with an AC bus stand when they don’t get buses to reach their destinations in time?”“Are the people supposed to sleep in AC bus stands while waiting for buses that come too far in between to fulfill their transportation needs?”, the Congress leaders quipped. The bulk of the buses in the state are privately owned, and majority of them by Badal-owned companies, said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) leaders Sunil Jakhar, Manpreet Badal and Darshan S Brar in a statement issued here.
Describing these projects as completely worthless for the people, the PPCC leaders said the Badals were trying to adopt foreign schemes in Punjab, which was currently struggling to cope with a multitude of problems, ranging from the economic to the social. There are people who are dying of hunger, lack of money, drugs and unemployment, while others are being killed by criminal mafias who rule the state under Badal patronage, the Punjab Congress leaders pointed out, adding that these high-flying ideas are not going to raise the state to the standards of global cities.The PPCC leaders described as sickening the total lack of empathy in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) -Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine for the suffering masses of the state. “If you can’t help them don’t at least mock them by tom-tomming your high-fangled ideas which have no place in the lives of the people at this juncture,” the PPCC leaders told the Badals, urging them to refrain from such shameless acts, which were also in violation of all electoral norms, considering that the state was slated to go to the polls in just a few weeks from now.