AAP failed to provide peace, CM should take blame: Oppn

Chandigarh: SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann should own responsibility for failing to maintain law and order and ensuring no one was allowed to disturb communal harmony in the state. Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma also condemned murder of Akali worker Ajitpal Singh in Batala on Monday night, saying the AAP government was responsible for deteriorating law and order in the state.Sharma alleged a conspiracy to defame Punjab, saying tall claims of the government of providing peace in the state alone do not provide protection. “Since the AAP government came to power in Punjab, there has not been a day when there has been no murder, robbery or snatching of someone in the state. Now, the situation is such that criminals have started robbing banks and other businesses near police stations day in and day out and the police are watching as a silent spectator,” Sharma said.The SAD president said instead of instilling confidence in Punjabis by taking appropriate steps, the chief minister had fled the state to campaign for AAP in Gujarat along with his cabinet. He asserted that Punjabis had given a massive mandate to AAP to bring about a positive change and not use the state’s resources to expand AAP’s influence across the country and paralyse governance in Punjab. “Never in the history of the state had such a situation arisen, when an elected government has forsaken its people and allowed the state to slip into anarchy,” he added.Sukhbir claimed that no one was feeling safe in Punjab today. Targeted killings are an everyday event with an Akali worker gunned down near Batala on Tuesday. “Earlier, we have witnessed the gruesome murder of youth icon Sidhu Moose Wala, RPG attack on the Punjab police intelligence headquarter, Hindu-Sikh clashes and even sensational escape of gangster Deepak Tinu from police custody,” he added. The AAP government has in eight months taken the state back by 20 years, with people now being forced to remember the era of darkness of the 1980s which was also heralded by the breakdown of law and order and communal disturbances, said Sukhbir.Sukhbir said, “A number of investors met me recently and told me that the atmosphere in Punjab is not conducive for investment currently. Even home-grown businessmen are choosing to move out of the state.”The murder of Pardeep Singh, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower who was accused of being involved in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case in Faridkot, has also put Punjab's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the dock. Pardeep Singh’s killing comes less than a week after a ‘radicalised’ youth fatally shot Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri in Amritsar before the eyes of cops. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who was blamed for the murder of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu Moose Wala, who was shot dead in May.