Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said here on Tuesday that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab had opened up jobs in the state to outsiders from Haryana and Rajasthan for political benefit in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the two states.

Addressing a party programme at Budhlada in Mansa, the SAD president said the history and culture of Punjab had been diluted to pave the way for the recruitment of outsiders at the cost of the youth of the state. “This is the biggest betrayal of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who is working as per the diktats of his boss Arvind Kejriwal to deny jobs to people from Punjab,” he added.

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Badal alleged six of the seven police sub-inspectors recruited in Mansa recently were from Haryana. “Out of 1,370 linemen recruited by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), as many as 534 candidates are from Haryana while 94 are from Rajasthan,” he added.

Similarly, the SAD chief said in the case of the animal husbandry department, out of 68 veterinary inspectors recruited in 2022, 24 were from Haryana and 12 were from Rajasthan. In the same department, out of 310 veterinary inspectors recruited in 2023, 134 were from Haryana and Rajasthan.

Badal said 150 outsiders were recruited as junior engineers in the state power utility out of a total of 500 posts and 300 outsiders had been given employment in the health systems corporation.

He said the Congress and the AAP had joined forces to defame the SAD by accusing it of acts of sacrilege. “Can anyone imagine a party that was formed 102 years ago to serve Gurughars indulging in such heinous acts? We tried to explain the entire issue but people were misled by vested interests,” he said.

Badal said drugs were posing a grave threat to an entire generation in Punjab with AAP ministers and legislators being hand in gloves with the drug mafia. “The ministers and legislators are taking monthlies from the mafia which is why it has been given a free run in Punjab. The mafia has become so emboldened that it is now targeting anti-drug activists and murdering them at will even as the government looks the other way,” he added.