In a scathing attack on the Opposition referring to none but one Akali leader, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said here on Monday that the state needs leaders, and not the dealers who had looted the state during their tenure.
Addressing a gathering after dedicating 76 Aam Aadmi Clinics to the people at Dhuri, Mann said these leaders were least concerned about Punjab and its people.
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He said he was aghast to learn the misdeeds of these (Opposition) leaders through the files drenched with the blood of the people. These leaders will be made to account for their sins and every single penny from the taxpayers’ money will be recovered from them.
Launching a scathing attack on former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, the CM said during his stint, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had introduced e-stamps. Alleging that the former finance minister had ordered printing of stamp papers worth Rs 1,266 crore at a cost of Rs 57 crore, he said this ‘experienced’ finance minister brought a staggering loss of around Rs 60 crore to the state exchequer, thanks to his faulty vision.
The CM said while his government has given jobs to more than 31,000 youth besides regularising jobs of 12,710, the former minister acted as a stumbling block in jobs for youth and development of the state. Throughout his nine-year tenure as finance minister, Badal kept harping on empty-exchequer ruse due to which the state lagged behind in progress.
Such opportunist leaders, who living in palatial bungalows, he said had always preferred their own vested interests over that of the state and its people and now that people of the state out-rightly rejected them, they are making baseless statements against the state government out of frustration.
Mann said the common man will give these leaders a befitting reply in times to come.
