Thaindian News

Amritsar, Aug 13 (IANS) Making a frontal attack on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Congress leader Amarinder Singh Saturday said that while the Badal family was getting richer, Punjab was becoming poorer by the day.

Addressing a rally at Baba Bakala town near here Saturday, Amarinder, a former chief minister, asked the elder Badal to explain the source of his wealth worth several billions of rupees now.

He said: “It is surprising that while Punjab was getting poor, the Badals were becoming richer and richer.”

“When Badal joined politics, he had inherited only 80 acres of land from his father. What miracle did you do that you earned billions from these acres, that now you own seven star hotels worth thousands of crores, thousands of acres of land across the world and much more?” he asked.

Amarinder Singh, who is the Punjab Congress president, said that Badal, who has been chief minister of Punjab four times, had done nothing for the state worth remembering.

“The only thing he did during these four terms was to go on accumulating and multiplying his wealth by billions, of which he may have lost the count himself,” he said.

Amarinder Singh said that Punjab needed industry and revamping of agriculture to progress further.

“Farmers are committing suicides due to indebtness and youths are taking to drugs. The state government is hardly doing anything,” he said.

The Amarinder Singh government (2002-07) had in 2002 registered cases of corruption and disproportionate assets against the Badals. A lower court in Mohali earlier this year acquitted the Badals of the charges.