GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, November 3

 PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu launched a fresh attack on former chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh over the latter’s statement on exposing the alleged ‘sand mafia’ being run under the patronage of Congress ministers, bureaucrats and leaders.

Sidhu, who was in Amritsar on Wednesday to launch development works at ancient Ram Talai temple falling under the East constituency—which he represents as an MLA—demanded to know why Amarinder kept silent if he was aware of illegal sand mining during his own tenure.

Taking a jibe at Capt. Amarinder’s statements over resolving the farmers’ crisis, Sidhu said that no one was inclined to join hands with a “spent cartridge”.

“You (Capt. Amarinder) are a dying duck in a thunderstorm, a lost cause. A ‘failed CM” was replaced Not even a councillor, even your wife (Perneet Kaur) did not stand by you,” he said scathingly. “Ask your wife if she quit the Congress?  Now, you have been behaving like a ‘rondu bacha’ (cry baby). There is a saying that as you grow old, you start behaving like kids. He was proved to be ‘coward’ and ‘fraud’ for not taking action against the mafias. How many seats did he win when he formed a party earlier? Let the people of Punjab decide who was there for the ‘chair’ and who was struggling to resolving the Punjab issues,” he said.

He claimed “all was well” within the Congress, and promised that the party would prepare a roadmap to steer the state out of crisis.

“This time (2022 Assembly polls), the last two month’s shortcuts and sops would not work. It is our last chance. I have demanded from my party leadership to give me the power of morality, to get me on the stage. Only then will I be committed to offer a true roadmap for Punjab. I will never betray the people of Punjab, take it from me. If the conscious is clean, the political will and well-conceived policy is there, everything is achievable,” he said.

He said his government would frame a policy on Value Added Tax on fuel to make it rationalised.

“Much was made of the high VAT on petrol and diesel. VAT on fuel is the highest in Punjab. It was agreed that focus should on increasing the state’s income to make it rationalised .We will also be framing the policy on sand and liquor trading where rates would be fixed by the government only,” he said.