New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has blamed SAD leaders for "demeaning" his government's Rs 9,500 crore farm loan waiver scheme and indulging in "political gimmickry".
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had been hitting out at the Congress government in the state, alleging that the party had reneged on the promises made before the Assembly polls held earlier this year.
The chief minister accused SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal of "playing with the sentiments of the people with fraudulent and baseless charges" against the current dispensation.
Amarinder Singh also questioned his predecessor over "failure" to take any initiatives for the farmers and other sections of the society during his 10-year tenure, and now criticising the steps being taken by the Congress government for the welfare of the people.
Asserting that his government had announced the loan waiver scheme in Punjab Assembly in June this year, the chief minister said that Badal failed to even turn up for the session.
"In fact, the Akalis did not have the patience to listen to the government on the issue," he said in a statement, adding, it was evident that the SAD did not have a positive programme and were merely indulging in "political gimmickry" for their political interests.
The chief minister warned the SAD against persuing a "negative" agenda, saying the people of Punjab were not willing to give them a long rope now and would not tolerate such ploys as they only wanted to live and progress in peace.
"The Akalis were concerned only about promoting their own political and personal interests, as they had been doing all these years, at the cost of the development and progress of Punjab and its people," he said.
On the SAD core committee's rejection of the government's notification on farmers' debt, the chief minister challenged Parkash Singh Badal and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal to prove even a single of their allegations on loan waiver issue.
Having "failed" to take any step for the welfare of the farmers during their decade-long rule, the Badals now have the "audacity to demean" the initiatives being taken by the Congress government despite the "financial crisis inherited" by his government from the SAD-BJP dispensation, he alleged.