Terming the first six months of the Bhagwant Mann government as impressive, the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), on Saturday, said the party’s government has fulfilled many poll promises unlike previous governments in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference here, state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the previous governments only befooled the public and spent taxpayer’s money to fill their own coffers while the AAP government has hit the ground running from the day one.

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Listing the performance of the AAP government, Kang claimed that 20,000 jobs were give while jobs of 9,000 contractual employees were regularised as promised during at the time of elections.

He said for the first time in the history of Punjab, a minimum support price (MSP) was given to farmers for the cultivation of moong, pending compensation to cotton farmers of Malwa region pending since 2020 was cleared by the Mann government which he called a pro-farmers and pro-people government.

The AAP spokesperson further recalled that earlier farmers were charged Rs 5,000 electricity bill. But the Mann government decided to charge Rs 2,500 for house power to give economic relief to the farmers. The government is giving 600 MW free power units to Punjabis and almost 80 per cent of people now get zero bill.

He said the Punjab Roadways has always been in loss, because the fleets of private transporters continued to be encouraged and the Roadways was allowed to languish in loss. But now it is in profit and Volvo buses for NRIs to Delhi Airport have also been started by the government, Kang said.

He said corruption dominated the rule of previous governments, and a debt of Rs 3,00,000 crores was raised over Punjab.  Sukhvilas Hotel of Badals and Siswan farm of Capt Amarinder Singh were embellished with foreign stones while the state was reeling under financial crisis, the AAP spokesperson said.

After forming the government, the Mann government cracked the whip on corrupt people by arresting former ministers and senior bureaucrats as AAP has adopted a zero tolerance policy against corruption, Kang added.

Kang further said the AAP government freed over 10000 acres of illegally encroached land from the clutches of influential people. He said the AAP government set up 100 Aam Aadmi Clinics in six months.

He said the Mann government formed an Anti-Gangster Task Force and more than 300 people associated with organised crime have been arrested while over 4000 peddlers were arrested to break nexus of drugs smuggling in Punjab, the AAP spokesperson said.