AAP’s Neel Garg Question Congress Leader Bajwa Over Gurdaspur Land Purchase and Use of Public Funds for Check Dam
Chandigarh(The Uttam Hindu): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior spokesperson Neel Garg has sharply reacted to the statement made by Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa during the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Garg said that when Punjab was facing the century’s worst flood tragedy, instead of standing with the people, Bajwa ji was pressuring government officials to serve his personal business interests.
Addressing a press conference at the party office on Tuesday, Neel Garg said it was highly unfortunate that in such a critical time, when the Leader of Opposition should have stood with the government to demand ₹20,000 crore compensation from the Centre, Bajwa instead began raising questions against the Punjab government and even tried to blame the government by calling the floods "man-made."
Garg informed that a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was convened from September 26 to 29 to deliberate on the massive devastation caused by the floods. This calamity destroyed nearly 5 lakh acres of standing crops, devastated 2,305 villages, caused the death of 60 people, and led to losses worth thousands of crores.
Neel Garg raised several questions to Partap Singh Bajwa and demanded answers from the Congress leadership as well. He asked, “Bajwa ji, why did you purchase two pieces of land, in the name of your wife and son, near dhussi bund on the Beas river in Gurdaspur? Did you already know that every monsoon, sand is deposited here, and you intended to run a ‘mining’ business from it? When people were suffering destruction due to floods, why did you treat this as a business ‘opportunity’?”
Garg further said that Bajwa had purchased 185 kanals and 4 marlas of land in Gurdaspur in the name of his son and wife in 2016-17. At that time, when farmers were not getting compensation, the Congress government spent ₹1 crore 18 lakh from the state exchequer to build check dams (stone embankment) on Bajwa’s private land. Garg asked, “Is it justified to use taxpayers’ money to protect private property?”
The AAP leader further said that while the people of Punjab were battling floods, Partap Singh Bajwa was pressuring officials to again construct embankments around his private land by spending from the government treasury. He asked, “When Punjab needed help from the Centre, why did you give priority to your personal interests instead of the people? This is exactly the case of ‘Honey in the mouth, dagger in the heart!’”
Garg said that Bajwa, being a senior leader, must answer these questions, and the Congress party leadership too should clarify its double standards.