Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday challenged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to a debate on development,which the latter wants to use as his plank for the next Assembly elections. The former Chief Minister said the present one has nothing to his credit; his claims about development are bogus with nothing visible at ground level. If Badal is really so confident about having brought about so much development,let him come to an open forum and debate it directly, he said on the sidelines of a public rally organised by local Congress MLA Balbir Sidhu. Badal has said development work by the SAD-BJP government in the last four years was more than what was achieved during the tenure of successive Congress governments. Badal is CM and I am ex-CM. Let the debate be moderated independently at some institution like Panjab University and everything will be crystal clear as to who did what. Earlier,addressing the rally,Amarinder had wondered how it was that while Punjab was getting poorer and poorer,the Badals were getting richer and richer. Accusing the Badals of all-round failure,he said the Badals had pushed Punjab to the brink of bankruptcy with the debt rising at an alarming proposition. At the same time,he said,they themselves were amassing a fortune out of everything. He said the present government was being run by a close coterie of four people: the Badal father and son,and Sukhbirs wife and brother-in-law. About development,he said,During my tenure,I tried to develop Mohali as an industrial hub so that this model could be replicated all over the state. I had tried to bring all IT giants here and finalised about 400 projects but the Badals set all these aside,apparently with a view to extorting money from the promoters. As a result they never came back. Otherwise,lakhs of jobs would have been created,he said. Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said the Congress had already sounded the bugle for the war against Badal government under Amarinders command. The writing is on the wall. The days of the Badals are numbered, she said. Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittoo also spoke on the occasion. Former Ministers Lal Singh,Harnam Dass Johar,Chaudhary Jagjit Singh,MLAs Jeet Mohinder Sidhu,Arvind Khanna,Charanjit Singh Channi,Tej Parkash,OP Soni,Darshan Brar,former Ministers Jagmohan Singh Kang and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot were present. Attack on govt *On false cases against Congress workers: You (police officials,leaders) all knew my style of functioning. I simply take action. Either you mend your ways or get ready to be hanged upside down. *On crime: They (Akalis) have pushed the state to chaos,anarchy and lawlessness as was evident from the official figures showing 65 per cent increase in the crime rate since the Congress regime. *On abuse of power: The Badals are trying to black out some news channels,which they think are not subscribing to their point of view. Even today,while a news channel was telecasting our rally live,they took it off the air. He called this dictatorial,despotic and undemocratic and a clear violation of the freedom of the press. In Amritsar,the government had slapped a criminal case against a cable news operator just because he was not toeing their line,Amarinder said. *On new districts: There always are demands but it is up to the government to take the right decision and see whether these are needed. Setting up a new district has huge financial implications. *On subsidies: Our stand is clear. The Congress did favour subsidies but we want to ensure that the subsidies are rationalised and only the deserving get them. *On cases against him: I have full faith in the judiciary and I am confident of coming out clean. Factionalism The Congress rally saw one of the highest gatherings ever but it again exposed factionalism. Rival party leaders led their respective groups to the venue. Amarinders former OSD Lakhwinder Kaur Garcha and former Minister Harnek Singh Gharuan failed to get seats on the dais. Pat on the back Only local MLA Balbir Sidhu who got a pat on his back from Amarinder. Referring to what he called as Sidhus implication in false murder case, he said,This is an extreme of excesses and it is being duly taken note of.
