Jakhar accuses Akali Dal of excess food account repayment to Centre
CHANDIGARH: Punjab congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Thursday said that the previous SAD-BJP regime had committed a fraud on the people of Punjab by agreeing to ₹31,000 crore food account repayment when the Centre had agreed to cap the settlement at ₹13,000 crore.
Presenting a copy the Centre’s document at a press conference, Jakhar urged the then finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa to come clean and explain to the people of Punjab about his political compulsions which led him to mortgage state’s interests.
“For 20 years, the state government had to make a yearly payment of ₹3,240 crore which turn to be a whopping ₹64,800 crore,” said Jakhar.
Jakhar said the Centre’s document clearly says “the state will accept the responsibility only for ₹13,000 crore, and ₹6,000 crore will be contributed by the centre, and in case the calculation is of any higher amount, it will be waived off by the consortium of banks”.
Jakhar said he will write to PM Narendra Modi and FM Nirmala Sitharaman to put all facts on the issue in the public domain.
Stop making wild allegations: SAD
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) asked Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar not to indulge in “cheap shoot-andscoot politics”.
Reacting to Jakhar’s statemjent, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema accused Jakhar and the Congress of being double-faced on the issue. “The Congress party tries to politicise this issue even as it officially admits that the amount accumulated due to disparity in calculation of transport and labour charges for procurement done on behalf of the Centre,” he said in statement.
JALANDHAR: Jalandhar has been ranked 32 (out of 62 cities) in less than a million population category of ‘Ease of Living Index 2020’. The city scored 52.18 points and is the only city from Punjab to be figured in the category. The city scored 100 and 96 points in city resilience and safety and security categories in the ease of living index.
Jalandhar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said: “We have been remained focused on the crime prevention and detection in the city.”
“The city resilience is indispensable, with the onset of hazardous calamities that have a impact on the people and the environment”, defines the index. The city scored 50.6 in quality of life, 13.48 in economic ability which is third highest in the northern region and nine out of 62 cities under less than million category. The city has scored around 74.70 in the citizen perception survey. The city has got nearly 90 points under Housing and Shelter category. The ease of living index revealed that Jalandhar scored worst in the green buildings, economic opportunities, recreations and economic abilities categories. The city has scored 5 points in recreation, 10 in economic opportunity, 15 in economic abilities while scores nothing in green building category.