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.