Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, mounting a frontal attack on Captain Amarinder Singh, alleged that the root cause of the ‘open loot’ of state exchequer was none other than Captain himself, saying the sooner he relinquished the chair the better it would be for the state and its people.Taking a pot shot at the Congress Ministers-MLAs engaged in a typical street-like fight with the administrative top brass, Cheema said it was now the appropriate time for them to speak up for Punjab and the Punjabis by exerting pressure on Captain Amarinder Singh, to relinquish the charge of chief ministership, clearing the decks for a competent and performing chief minister who could do justice to the august post, by rising above their petty political ends and secure their berths.The LoP said while addressing media persons at party headquarters in Chandigarh here on Thursday. Others who were in presence, included Kotkpura legislator Kultar Singh Sandhwan, core committee members Gerry Birring, Sukhwinder Sukhi, Harchand Singh Barsat, Manjit Singh Sidhu, Narinder Shergill, party spokesman Gobinder Mittal.The AAP leader alleged that during the 10-year misrule of the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, while Sukhbir Singh Badal was helming the affairs of the state-run mafias, now Captain Amarinder Singh was the commander of mafia lords calling the shots in the state, saying that those fighting like cats and dogs were mere ‘pawns’.
He lamented that Captain Amarinder Singh, who was not to be seen around in this hour of global distress when the people were battling the killer Corona virus amid extended lockdown, adding he should show up at this critical juncture to stem the leadership crisis and the mitigate the sufferings of the poor and needy.The AAP leader said that the way Congress ministers-MLAs’ concern over the wanton ‘loot’ of the public money and the age-old bonhomie with the people of the state was discernible on their grim faces for the first time during the current tenure of the government, to muster enough courage to take the matter to the conclusive end, setting aside their personal interests and aspirations.Stressing the need for setting up of state-run liquor corporation in Punjab in tune with those set up by the Delhi and Tamil Nadu governments, which, he said, would not only crush the liquor mafia from the state but would fetch the state exchequer a whopping surge in income worth Rs 18,000 crore against the target Rs 6,200 crore, besides offering a window of opportunities for unemployed youth in the state.Cheema demanded that the government should set up a high-powered commission of inquiry comprising of high court judges under the watch of chief justice, so that those behind this nexus could be awarded exemplary punishment.He said that if the Captain government continued protecting the big fish among the politicians and bureaucrats involved in the shady deal, the AAP party, if voted to power, would set up a commission of inquiry on a priority basis to buy justice for the people of Punjab.