SAD sees Captain’s caution on debt as ‘threat to officers’

Dr CHEEMA ACCUSES AMARINDER OF ASKING THEN PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH TO STOP GRANTS WORTH CRORES OF RUPEES TO PUNJAB

CHANDIGARH: Reacting to the statement by Amritsar MP Captain Amarinder Singh about officers putting a debtridden Punjab under more debt, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday took it as “a serious threat issued to bureaucrats”.

SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema told the former chief minister that the officers “are working day and night for the development of Punjab, under a constitutionally elected government, and he has no business to threaten them. If he has any point to make, let him make it to the government.”

“It is not the first time when Amarinder has tried to terrorise the officers to stop them from performing their bona-fide duties. Before the 2012 Punjab elections as well, he had told banks in the same fashion to not issue loans to the state for development works,” said Dr Cheema. He even accused Amarinder of asking the-then prime minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress to stop grants worth crores of rupees to Punjab.

“Amarinder did so apprehending that development of the state would mean his defeat in the assembly elections. History is going to repeat, so the same fear has gripped Amarinder,” said the SAD spokesman.