Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has assailed the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for its perverted claim with regard to the jobs given to Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife and son, saying that they were both deserving candidates, who been selected on merit.The government stood by its decision on the appointment of Sidhu’s wife as Chairman, Warehousing Board, and his son as Assistant AG, said the Chief Minister, adding that to accept or reject the offer was the decision of Sidhu’s family, with SAD having no role in the matter.Captain Amarinder ridiculed Cheema’s attempt to take credit for the Sidhu family’s decision not to take up the jobs offered by the government. The Akali leader’s desperate effort to give a political twist to the entire matter had once again shown that the party was bereft of any serious issues and was desperately clawing at non-issues in the face of imminent defeat in the Shahkot by-election.Reacting sharply to SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema that the party had foiled the government’s plan to give the family jobs, the Chief Minister said there was no question of backing out of the decision.It was none of SAD’s business to whom his government gave jobs, said the Chief Minister, pointing out that Karan Sidhu was selected for Assistant AG’s job by the AG himself, after 13 months of work in the latter’s office, and that too free of cost. If Cheema had to complain, he should have complained then against no payment being made to Karan for his word, said the Chief Minister.The politically motivated attack by Cheema was completely devoid of any substance, said the Chief Minister, pointing out that, contrary to SAD’s allegations, his government was well on track with the fulfilment of all its key promises, despite the massive debt inherited from the erstwhile SAD-BJP government.
Citing the success of the `Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ scheme, the Chief Minister said that his government, in just over a year since taking over, had successfully generated employment for over 1.71 lakh youngsters in the state. He reminded Cheema that it was his party which, during a decade of misrule, had been responsible for the creation of the unemployment mess in the state. His government, in contrast, was successfully creating job opportunities, with a target of giving jobs to another 5 lakh youth in the current fiscal.Even on the farm debt waiver front, the government was well on track with the implementation of its scheme, despite the huge financial crunch faced by it, again thanks to the SAD-BJP government’s corrupt policies and total misgovernance, said the Chief Minister. The government, he pointed out, had already handed over debt relief certificates worth Rs. 1255 Crore to 240,432 marginal farmers, with another 39113 cases (Rs. 282 Crore) ready for waiver by May 31.What did SAD on any of these counts during the 10 years of its regime, the Chief Minister asked Cheema, challenging him to cite even a single achievement of the Badal government in the interest of the farmers or the youth or any other section of the society. The Congress government was trying its best to clean up the mess left behind by SAD, even though they had left behind empty coffers and total mess in every field, said Captain Amarinder.The Chief Minister described as `disgusting’ the SAD’s efforts to undermine the Congress government’s achievements by misleading the people of the state over critical issues. The Akalis were clearly engrossed only in playing politics over issues of public interest, with not an iota of concern for the welfare of the people.