Pathankot, Dec 3 (IANS) Slamming Amarinder Singh for his "myopic" mindset towards the poor, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Friday that the former CM targeted him because he had raised issues of the common man.
Addressing a public gathering at Bhoa near here, the Chief Minister said that as he "comes from a family with humble background, he always impressed upon the former Chief Minister to safeguard the interests of the common man".
However, he said, instead of resolving the issues and give reprieve to the poor and the downtrodden, the 'Maharaja' -- as Amarinder Singh, the scion of the erstwhile Patiala Royal family, is called -- started victimising him.
Channi said that even then he continued his struggle for the underprivileged masses.
The Chief Minister said that only the Congress can take a revolutionary decision to oust a 'Maharaja' and bestow responsibility of the Chief Minister to a common man.
However, he said this revolution can sustain only if all the common and needy people stand united to support the Congress. Channi categorically said that the powerful elite class is conniving to destabilise this common man's government by dividing the poor on sectarian lines.
Lashing out at the Akalis, the BJP and Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister said they are partners in crime against the people of Punjab. He said the trio had connived to pass anti-farm laws for jeopardising the interests of the state.
Channi said the Akalis are the mother of the anti-farm laws, as they had passed the Bill on contract farming in the Punjab Assembly in 2013, which later became the basis of the 'draconian' farm laws, adding that they were hand-in-glove with the BJP to pass these black laws in the Parliament.
Slamming Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal for his 'little knowledge' about the state, Channi said the Delhi Chief Minister is groping in the dark for fulfilling his lust for power.
He said besides being an outsider, Kejriwal is also a rumour-monger who knows nothing about the state but pokes his nose in every matter.
Such cheap politics will never be successful in the state, he added.
The Chief Minister also said that Kejriwal is a 'power hungry outsider', who desires to rule Punjab due to which he is trying to mislead the Punjabis.
Calling the Congress as the only party who protested against these 'black' laws from the very first day, the Chief Minister said his government called an all-party meeting and then held consultations with farm unions.
The highly specialised medical services to be rolled out across the state by end November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor for whom expert private sector medical care is out of reach, he said.
The Minister while addressing the inaugural session of 'Connect Karo 2021 - Towards Equitable, Sustainable Indian Cities' event, said that there can be no doubt that India's cities "enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology" will be the key to achieving the nation's development objectives.
Meanwhile, India logged 27,254 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 219 Covid deaths in the same time span. The country presently has nearly 3.75 lakh active cases.
At a virtual Covid-19 review meeting, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special efforts were made to reach out to the government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said with the case load decreasing, people had started being lax about wearing masks, which the Health Department should strictly enforce with the help of the police.
