Janjivan Bureau / Chandigarh/Pathankot: The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party today lashed out at the BJP-led government at the Centre for allegedly “derailing” the economy with “ridiculous” decisions which hit the common man.
Both parties also accused the Centre of framing policies to “favour” only big corporate houses and questioned the benefits of schemes like demonetisation.
Addressing a meeting of workers at Bhoa in Pathankot district, Punjab Congress chief and Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election candidate Sunil Jakhar challenged the Centre to disclose as to who really benefited from demonetisation.
“Let him (Finance Minister Arun Jaitley) come and tell the people (as to) who benefited from demonetisation,” said Jakhar.
“The common man is suffering and struggling to manage three meals a day under the Modi regime,” he said, adding that only big corporates would be “celebrating” Diwali this year.
Jakhar also criticised the Centre for doling out tax incentives to hilly states, alleging that no industry would come to the border belt of the state if such “anti-Punjab” policies of the Centre continued.
Promising holistic development of the region, Jakhar said the Congress government in the state was working to ensure all basic amenities for the people, including clean drinking water and proper roads.
He cited the “poor” condition of the roads in the area to highlight the lack of development under the Badal regime.
“The Badals spent crores of rupees on building seven-star hotels while ignoring the basic development needs of Punjab,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, AAP’s Punjab chief Bhagwant Mann also lashed out at the Centre for “derailing” the economy.
“The Central government has failed to provide two crore jobs to the unemployed youth in one year — which the BJP promised before coming to power in 2014,” said Mann.
The Sangrur MP said demonetisation had proved disastrous for the country as it left a large number of gainfully employed people jobless.
“While most of the people have still not recovered from the shock of demonetisation, the Modi government hurriedly introduced the Goods and Services Tax without being ready for the same. As a result, businesses of a large number of the trading community came to a grinding halt,” Mann said.
“The business community is facing a severe cash crunch as the government failed to refund their taxes. They have now no money to buy the raw material and pay daily wages to the labourers,” he said.
The AAP leader also hit out at the current Congress-led regime in Punjab for failing to implement its poll promises like farm debt waiver.
The Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll was necessitated following the death of BJP MP Vinod Khanna in April this year. The bypoll will be held on October 11.
