The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today lambasted Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal for trying to befool Punjabis on the issue of the Rs.31, 000 crore Cash Credit Limit (CCL) debt as well as farm loan waiver and asked him to first explain his anti-people actions before pointing fingers at others.In a statement here, former minister Sikander Singh Maluka said it was strange that Manpreet Badal was asking that the SAD should get the Rs 31,000 crore cash credit limit (CCL) related debt waived off from the centre without even making a similar request for the same as finance minister. “In fact Manpreet Badal during a meeting with Union finance minister Arun Jaitely last year mouthed the SAD stand on this issue by stating that there was a principal amount of Rs 12,500 crore pending against the State as part of the gap between money received for food grain procurement and expenditure incurred by the State in procuring the same. He also accepted that there was an interest quotient of Rs 18,500 crore on this amount. He did not make any appeal to waive this off himself but is now asking the SAD to do this”, Maluka added.
Condemning Manpreet Badal for reneging on his promise to farmers and trying to shift the blame for the Congress government’s abysmal failure to implement a complete loan waiver on Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and the NDA government, Mr Maluka said it was Manpreet Badal who authored the election manifesto in which the complete loan waiver of Rs 90,000 crore was mentioned. “It was Manpreet Badal who assured the media that he had a road map to meet this promise. However ever since the Congress government was formed he is trying to shift this onus on the centre. Did he take the central government into confidence when making this promise?” he asked.Stating that this was not all, the Akali leader said Manpreet Badal had dispensation of benefits for all welfare measures initiated by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government be it shagun scheme, aata-daal scheme, old age pension or SC scholarship. “He has also punished his own constituents by closing down the Bathinda thermal plant by putting forward a bogus plea that it is not viable. Even innocent children of the Bathinda thermal plant colony school who are also cursing him for making false promises have not been spared by him. What can be more inhuman” Maluka added.