Shiromani Akali Dal President and Deputy Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee into the scam in the Congress led UPA’s so called Loan Waiver Scheme for farmers, under which loans worth Rs 60,000 crore were waived, citing irregularities found by CAG. He said that this loan waiver scheme, the biggest misnomer of century, was especially designed to fool the peasantry of the nation besides looting the exchequer, otherwise Punjab, which puts in over 50 percent of the foodgrains in the national pool, could get rupees 30,000 crores out of the announced scheme.Replying to a media query after inducting former Sarpanch Drauli Bhai Ms. Baldev Kaur and his son senior congress leader and former chairman Block Samittee Moga-2 Mr. Kewal Singh into party folds while campaigning for SAD-BJP candidate Mr. Joginder Pal Jain at village Drauli Bhai, Mr. Badal said that this loan waiver scheme was a twin purpose political gesture of Congress led UPA on the eve of the 2009 elections. He said that Congress not only mint money out of this scheme but also came back to power by deceiving farmers with this gesture of unclogging the lines of credit and helping farmers to get new loans. He said that the gravity of this scam could be estimated by the fact that out of around 1 lakh accounts scrutinised in 800 bank branches, there were wrongdoings in as many as 20,000 accounts. He said that as per this scheme, agricultural loans of over 3.5 crore farmers were waived, but according to the CAG, which has audited nearly 90,000 accounts, many farmers did not received the benefits which points to gross irregularities. Describing the Congress party as the fountainhead of black money and corruption in the country, Mr. Badal said that this was a mega scam and that too related to farmers, the backbone of Indian economy. He said that Congress has stashed away all the ill-gotten money worth lakhs of crores from series of scams in the tax havens abroad and used to spend a part of this money on its lavish election campaigns. “This is why, Congress has dragged its feet on the issue of revealing the names of this who have accounts in Swiss banks”, he added. Mr. Badal said that the people of the nation were licking their chops to teach an historic lesson to the Congress party and this scam would be the last nail in the coffin of scam-tainted UPA.
Giving a clarion call for clean sweep victory of SAD-BJP candidate Mr. Joginder Pal Jain, Shiromani Akali Dal President told SAD-BJP leaders and workers that they should not engage themselves in the slinging match with Congress party as frustrated Congress leadership had nothing to showcase except abuses. He said that time has come when every workers has to work day and night, associate himself with the masses taking the message of development to the masses and exposing the misdeeds of Congress led UPA government especially on the front of price rise and corruption. He said that Moga bypoll would be reminded as the last stroke that leads to complete decimation of the Congress party.