AAP robbing Punjab's natural resources to expand party: Badal

Amritsar: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal Tuesday accused ministers of the AAP government in Punjab and party MLAs of creating their "mafias" to rob the state of its natural resources.

The AAP leadership in Delhi, to the detriment of Punjab, was taking advantage of the state's resources and using it expand their party across the country, Badal said addressing public gatherings in Jandiala Guru and Baba Bakala as part of its 'Punjab Bachao Yatra'.

Badal also claimed that a Delhi minister sat in a meeting of the budget committee of the Punjab government recently and termed it "shocking".

"People are coming up to me and telling me that AAP ministers and legislators are indulging in illegal mining, besides coming in the way of drug smugglers' arrests".

In a statement here, Badal claimed that some women came up to him and alleged that a legislator had formed his "own mafia" that had resulted in a sharp hike in sand prices.

Sand, which was available for around Rs 15,000 per trolley during the SAD tenure, was now being sold for as much as Rs 60,000 per trolley, said Badal.

The women also appealed to the SAD president to take up the cause of families whose children had fallen prey to drug overdoses, according to the statement.

Badal said it was shocking that the AAP government was "harming" the interests of the common man by raising the cost of constructing homes.

The Akali Dal chief accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of "selling off" Punjab's interests to Delhi. He claimed that it was "shocking" that recently a Delhi minister sat in a meeting of the budget committee of the government.

This "remote control" of the Punjab government by Kejriwal and his "acolytes" was seen earlier also when Kejriwal's advisors attended cabinet meetings and also framed the excise policy of the state, he claimed.

"All this proves that the AAP high command is milking the resources of Punjab to spread AAP's wings across the country to the detriment of Punjabis and their welfare," he said.