Fazilka: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the SAD-BJP government in Punjab has "lost moral right" to continue as it has "miserably failed" in providing basic amenities like safe drinking water to the people of the state.
"After so many years of independence villages in Punjab are still deprived of drinking water," Kejriwal said on the second day of his five-day Punjab tour, at Teja Ruhela village.
He "assured" availability of drinking water to all villages in Punjab within one month if AAP voted to power in the 2017 assembly poll.
"I have found that several villages of Punjab are still deprived of the safe drinking water as a result most of the families of the area were affected by the water-borne diseases," Kejriwal said.
"If a state government fails to provide even drinking water to people, it has no moral right to continue in power", the Delhi Chief Minister said adding that AAP Government took it a priority to provide safe drinking water to all the citizens of Delhi.
He also lambasted the Punjab government for its alleged failure to check drug menace, unemployment and adequate compensation to farmers who lost their crops and committed suicides under debt.
Shocked over such a "worse condition", Kejriwal said, "I assure you, once AAP voted to power, within one month we will ensure safe drinking water in all these villages".
"No state government so far, be it of SAD-BJP or Congress, ever gave any heed to the villagers 'cry' for drinking water," he said.
Kejriwal lashed out at the Akali government for "contamination" of water due to use of insecticides and pesticides. He rued that instead of providing them drinking water, authorities just printed the walls with warning "groundwater is unfit for human consumption".
"The state in which villages are deprived of basic drinking water could never be tagged as 'developed'", he said while taking a dig at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for his repeated claim on development of Punjab in the last nine years.
"I have not seen such a bad situation in my entire life," Kejriwal said after listening to plight of villagers living in villages of the border.
"Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal claims of development, this is the development he has brought? he quipped.
Among others who addressed the villagers include, State Convener of AAP, Sucha Singh Chhotepur and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann. Kejriwal assured government job to the next of kin of Bheem Tank’s family who was murdered last year.
The state in past had experienced many hardships and reverses, but the government reacted with silence or with mere sympathy but never tried to listen to the grievances of the sufferer, he alleged.
"The family of Tank showed a picture in which something is written in blood on Tank’s shoe, which itself was a biggest proof of the incident but Police was sitting quiet, no action was taken", he alleged.
Referring to Tank's murder, Kejriwal said "many such incidents are occurring and will continue to take place if public would not wake up and it is time to seek justice and fight for your rights and vote the deserving candidate."
