CHANDIGARH: Alleging that Amarinder Singh failed to check the drug menace in the state during his tenure as Chief Minister, SAD today ridiculed the Punjab Congress chief's reported statement that he would solve the problem in four months if his party comes to power after the 2017 Assembly elections.
Terming the drug problem as "unholy progeny and legacy" of successive Congress governments, SAD General Secretary Balwinder Singh Bhunder in a statement said, "When Captain (Amarinder) shares stage with (Partap Singh) Bajwa while promising to eradicate the drug menace in four months, people can't decide whether it is more pathetic or funny."
"After all, it was the Captain who had openly accused of masterminding and promoting drug smuggling and terror-linked crimes in Punjab," said Bhunder, while making an apparent reference to the purported letter written by Amarinder to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Amarinder, in the letter that was leaked to the media in January last year, had allegedly said the drug menace in Punjab was not only prevalent during the Congress rule but was in fact created, sponsored and patronized by prominent Congress leaders like Bajwa.
"Amarinder had produced detailed evidence on how Bajwa was the kingpin of drug mafias operating in the state during the tenure of Congress governments," Bhunder alleged.
"But as Chief Minister, Amrinder not only allowed Bajwa to go scott free but his government actually provided an official umbrella to carry out massive drug smuggling and supply operations under the illegitimate cover of official security," Bhunder alleged.
On the "dichotomy" between Congress's promises and its allegations about the state's poor fiscal health, the SAD General Secretary said, "On one hand Amarinder declares that Punjab is truly bankrupt today while on the other, he goes ahead to promises doles which only a government in a sound state of fiscal health can think of providing."