Lashing at Congress for its anti Punjab policies Charanjit Singh Brar, advisor to President Shiromani Akali Dal and Deputy Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that Congress led UPA should stop adopting discriminatory policies against Punjabi farmers and industrialist otherwise Punjabis would teach the party an historic lesson. He said that Union government did injustice with Punjabi farmers by not considering the Punjabi and Sikh Jats in the category of Backward Classes while deciding to initiate the process to include Jats of northern Indian states into BC category and hit Punjabi industry badly by renewing ban on allowing new industries in Ludhiana, the Manchester of India.
Quoting the media reports in a statement issued here, Mr. Brar said that on August 31 Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had decided to form a Minister Group comprising Central Ministers P. Chidambram, Sushil Shinde, Kumari Sheilja and Narain Swami to include Jats of Rajisthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Himachal into BC category but deliberately ignored the Sikh Jats and Jats of Punjab, who were facing similar socio-economic challenges as were being faced by Jats of neighboring states. He said that after ignoring the farmers of state in the debt waiver scheme this would be another major discrimination with Punjabi farmers who were contributing maximum in the bread basket of the nation. Mr. Brar said that Congress led Union Government not only discriminate with Punjabi farmers but also tried to hit badly its industrial growth by not allowing the new industries in Ludhiana under the lame excuse of pollution. He said that everybody was aware of contribution of Ludhiana in the industrial sector of India. He said that now when the need of the hour was that Ludhiana should be announced as Special Economic Zone (SEZ) so that city could fight with industrial pollution and other challenges, Congress led UPA has been turning every stone to kill it. He said that on one hand Congress led centre governments were giving special packages to other states and on other these were hell bent to hinder the pace of development in Punjab.
Expressing deep concern over the silence of Punjab Congress leaders over the injustice being done by their party led UPA government, Mr. Brar questioned that why they were behaving as mute spectators on these very serious issues. He said that the leaders of Punjab Congress were busy in misleading investors through misleading campaign about fiscal health of state but they kept their mouth shut when Congress government at Centre had cheated Punjab farmers, who produced for 120 crore Indians, by giving only Rs 167 crore as against promised Rs 8,100 crore from the Rs 25,000 crore National Agriculture Development Plan, under the Prime Minister Rural Road Scheme, Punjab has only received Rs 250 crore in 2010 from the total budget of Rs 12,000 crore, Congress led UPA set such parameters for BPL schemes that 11 per cent of BPL people in Punjab were receiving zero benefit under the scheme and when Congress led UPA adopted step mother attitude towards the border state Punjab while releasing special package to neighboring Congress ruled states.Mr. Brar said that Punjabi people were witnessing this injustice and they were all set tod decimate the Congress party from the state in ensuing Lok Sabha elections to form NDA government at Centre.