Chandigarh, July 1 (IANS) BJP leaders on Wednesday termed the launch of Punjab AAP government’s ‘Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana’ at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s constituency Dhuri, “an election stunt” in view of the upcoming state Assembly polls.

In a post on X, Punjab CM Mann said: “Today, the historic launch of the ‘Mothers-Daughters Respect Scheme’ took place in Dhuri…Under this, Rs.1,000 for the general category and Rs.1,500 for the Dalit community is being given as a monthly honorarium.”

He added that the total amount of Rs. 4,500 for the months of July, August, and September has been transferred directly to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts, and that the “messages started reaching the women during the event itself”.

Reacting to it, Punjab BJP President, Kewal Singh Dhillon, claimed: “This is the biggest betrayal of our sisters, mothers and all women. This is an election stunt.”

“They (AAP government) had promised that they would provide this amount from the time they formed the government five years ago, but so many months have passed and they were not able to do it,” he told IANS.

Giving the examples of BJP governments in Haryana and West Bengal, he said: “We started providing the Rs. 3,000 financial assistance amounts from the day our government started functioning in West Bengal.”

“So, I want to say that this government is full of theatrics and all this is a drama by (AAP chief Arvind) Kejriwal,” he remarked.

Dillon asserted that after AAP’s defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls last year, it will also lose in Punjab.

Regarding electricity issues in Punjab, the state BJP chief said: “They (AAP government) had said that electricity is surplus in the state, but today the farmers, who should have been there on the fields, are instead out there protesting on the streets in the sweltering heat due to long power cuts.”

Echoing similar view, BJP leader Sanjay Tandon said: “The Aam Aadmi Party has a strange behaviour- as the government appears to be losing power, they are remembering their promises.”

“They (AAP government) did not fulfil their promise for four-and-a-half years, and now after exhausting the treasury, they are releasing the first installment….I want to ask whether they want to keep running the government like this?” he said.

He claimed that the people of Punjab are suffering due to a lot of issues, “whether it’s drugs, law-and-order and infrastructural collapses.”

“The public has decided to remove the AAP from power this time,” he asserted.

–IANS

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