The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday slammed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for boycotting the Niti Aayog meeting. The party alleged that the decision for the boycott has been taken at the instance of his (Mann’s) ‘boss’ Arvind Kejriwal, saying “Punjabis will be the losers in this face off”.

Criticising the Punjab chief minister for putting the political interests of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over that of Punjabis, SAD spokesman Charanjit Singh Brar said, “The Punjab government has lost a chance to deliberate on key issues like education, health, skill development and infrastructure development by boycotting the meeting. The AAP government claims these issues are the cornerstone of its governance model but it has chosen to boycott a meeting which was going to discuss them threadbare”.

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The SAD leader said the eighth governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog discussed the entire road map for developing the country and the CM should have attended the meeting to solicit required funds to fulfill this goal”.

Taking objection to claims by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government that it was boycotting the meeting in protest against discrimination against the state, Brar said “This protest should have been recorded in the Niti Aayog meeting to resolve all issues faced by the state instead of staying away”.

Brar said the failure of chief minister Bhagwant Mann to adopt a proactive approach had already damaged the state and its economy. He said the CM had not taken up the issue of release of outstanding rural development fund (RDF) of Rs 3,600 Crore with the Prime Minister till now.

He said similarly the CM had not taken up the value reduction imposed on wheat produce damaged by untimely rains with the centre nor demanded adequate compensation for farmers. There are many other pending issues all of which needed to be flagged at the Niti Aayog meeting to ensure they were addressed. Punjab has lost an opportunity to resolve all these issues”.