Ludhiana, June 9 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for selling government bonds to finance the “needless” acquisition of 24,000 acres of fertile farm land adjoining Ludhiana “to fill its own coffers”.

Terming the entire move as a multi-hundred crore scam, the SAD President, while talking to the media here, said that “while the taxpayer will pay exorbitant interest on the Rs 1,000 crore being borrowed to fund the land acquisition, the Aam Aadmi Party will use the acquisition process to make money. It is promising change of land use in the back date to property dealers and land sharks in exchange for bribes”.

Claiming this was the reason why the Chief Minister had turned a blind eye to the plight of thousands of farmers whose fertile lands would be snatched, Badal said: “The SAD is committed to saving this farm land. That is why we have announced that we will not let even one inch of this land parcel be acquired. We are also committed to exposing this scam and bringing those responsible for these corrupt practices to book once the SAD forms the government in the state.”

Asserting that the AAP government was bankrupting the state, Badal said that the state’s debt has crossed the Rs 4 lakh crore mark. “Out of this, Rs 1 lakh crore have been borrowed by the AAP government in the last three years. At this rate, the debt burden will increase by another Rs 50,000 crore by the time the tenure of this government ends.”

Despite such big borrowings, the AAP government had nothing to show by way of development, he said.

“Look around you. Do you see any development work? In fact, the condition of roads, lights, and sewerage is at its worst ever. All development work from bridges, flyovers to extension of the road network has been done during the previous SAD governments”.

He also explained how the weaker sections had not received any benefits from the increased borrowings. “The social benefits have been drastically reduced or completely stopped, be it the ‘atta daal’ scheme and the ‘shagun’ scheme, respectively.”

–IANS

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