Begowal (Kapurthala): With one scam after
another hitting the government, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister
Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said the UPA would soon make it to
the Guiness Book of Records for setting new benchmarks in
corruption.
"At a time when people of the country were still trying
to recover from the shock of Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G scam, a
bigger scam worth Rs 2 lakh crore in S-Band spectrum allotment
has been unveiled by the CAG, Sukhbir told reporters here.
Accusing the Centre of setting new records in corruption
on a regular basis, the ruling SAD chief said, "If scams keep
hitting the government at this rate Congress-led UPA will soon
find a slot in the Guinness Book of Records."
He was talking to reporters before laying the foundation
stone of development projects worth Rs 65 crore in Kapurthala
district.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief
Sonia Gandhi were answerable to the nation for "plundering the
country`s natural resources and scarce spectrum."
He said the magnitude of the scams could be gauged by the
fact that the huge amounts lost on account of them could have
provided tax free budget to all the states in the country for
the next five years.
When asked about the allegation of discrimination against
Punjab, Badal said the state that contributes 70 per cent
grains to the national pool and played a sterling role during
last 50 years to make the country self sufficient on food
security front, got a meagre 0.9 per cent in Centrally
sponsored Rs 70000 crore agricultural debt waiver fund.
He said that if the Centre was sincere enough, it would
have waived off all Rs 35000 crore agriculture debt of
Punjabi farmers without imposing any preconditions.
The SAD chief said that Punjab was getting only 1.29 per
cent in Central taxes whereas "non-performing" states like UP
were getting more than 20.7 per cent.
He said that it was a blatant case of discrimination
against Punjab which cannot be tolerated by SAD-BJP government
which would continue to fight till the state gets its
legitimate share of 50 per cent.
Later, talking to reporters in Jalandhar, Sukhbir made a
reference to another suspected scam involving ISRO saying
corruption and UPA were becoming synonymous with huge scams
worth lakhs of crores coming to the surface in quick
succession.
"Congress-led UPA is setting a new record every day when
it comes to corruption. First the Commonwealth Games scam,
then the 2G spectrum scam followed by Adarsh Housing Society
scam and now the ISRO scam. Scams have become the identity of
the government at the Centre," he said.
PTI
