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Place ‘5 pensions’ claimed by Parkash Badal in public domain: SAD to Punjab CM

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Place ‘5 pensions’ claimed by Parkash Badal in public domain: SAD to Punjab CM
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Chandigarh, November 30: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday challenged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to place on record ‘five pensions’ which he alleged had been availed by former chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal in public domain or be ready to face a defamation suit for peddling lies.

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The SAD President said in a statement that the chief minister was continuing the defamation campaign launched by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seven years ago and was now attempting to woo the Gujarat electorate with lies and false promises. "Bhagwant Mann may believe he can lie and mislead the public, but we will hold him accountable for his words." 

"Now he must either substantiate his claims by making the record public or apologise for the utterances. If he does neither, we will take legal action against him," he said.

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Sukhbir Badal stated that the five-time chief minister had written to the Protem Speaker immediately after his 2022 assembly election loss, requesting that his pension for serving ten terms as a legislator not be sent to him. "Parkash Singh Badal requested that this money be used for public welfare, particularly girl child education."

Stating that this communication was a matter of Vidhan Sabha record, Badal said the former chief minister had also made it clear in the letter that never in his life had he claimed pension as an ex-MLA.

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“In light of these facts, it is clear that the chief minister is making mischievous comments purposely to show the SAD in poor light and herald himself as a messiah who is saving taxpayers money of Rs five lakh per month. Actually, the opposite is true. The entire AAP campaign is built on propaganda with Rs 700 crore being earmarked for advertisements in the current financial year only. Hundreds of crores have already been spent on advertising AAP across the country, including poll-bound states like Gujarat. This is taxpayers' money which should have been utilized for development in the state. This also shows how interested the chief minister really is in utilizing public money for the welfare of Punjabis”.   

Badal also exposed the lies uttered by Bhagwant Mann during the course of his press conference in Gujarat today where he claimed that the AAP government was constructing medical colleges in Punjab. “This is a blatant lie. All the medical colleges which have been sanctioned in Punjab are part of a post-Covid initiative of the central government and are centrally funded projects”.

The SAD President also asked the chief minister to reflect upon the massive contribution of S Parkash Singh Badal in building the health infrastructure of Punjab as compared to his complete non-performance. 

“The most you (Bhagwant Mann) have done is repainting Suvidha Centres established by the erstwhile SAD government to convert them into Mohalla Clinics on the failed Delhi Model. Even these are not being run properly besides destabilizing rural hospitals which are without doctors and facing acute shortage of medicines”. He said in direct contrast S Parkash Singh Badal was singularly responsible for establishment of the Baba Farid Health University, Faridkot, AIIMS Bathinda, PIMS Jalandhar, Advanced Cancer Institute Bathinda, PGI Satellite Centre Sangrur and Homi Bhabha Cancer Institute Mohali. He said S Parkash Singh Badal had also initiated unique health care schemes including financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh to cancer patients, establishment of 1933 free medicine shops and 750 free diagnostic centres and 108 Ambulance Sewa.

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- PTC NEWS
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