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SAD plans Bill on loan waiver

`The Congress could rush through a half-baked Bill as a publicity stunt'

Chandigarh: Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab would bring a separate Bill for a total waiver of farmers' loans during the forthcoming session of the state legislative assembly.

Disclosing this here on Sunday, party General Secretary Sukhbir Singh Badal said the SAD did not trust the ``intentions'' of the Congress on the issue and apprehended that the ruling party could rush through a ``half-baked and toothless Bill'' as a ``publicity stunt'' to ``hoodwink'' the hapless farmers ahead of assembly polls in the state.

The reported refusal of the Congress to name Amarinder Singh as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the forthcoming elections showed that he was a ``liability'' for the party and a ``natural calamity'' for the state, Badal said.

``The Congress had rightly assessed that people of Punjab may not even allow Congressmen to enter villages and towns if Amarinder was named the prospective Chief Minister,'' said Badal, adding that it was amusing that the party in power was so confused about who should lead it in future.

Even without Amarinder, the Congress would have to face the ``wrath of the masses'' for having supported Singh, Badal said, calling the Chief Minister an ``autocrat.''

About the bill on loan waiver, the SAD general secretary said that the Congress had back-stabbed the Opposition and the people of the State during the Punjab Termination of River Water Agreements Act when it presented the Opposition with the option of accepting or rejecting the bill with virtually no time provided for studying it's finer details.

As a result, the Congress had managed to ``dishonestly sneak in'' a clause that provided legislative sanction to the existing flow of water to other states.

``This was done clearly at the instance of the High command to help the Congress ruled states,'' Badal alleged.

``We are not going to allow the ruling party to perpetrate another fraud on the people of the state, he said. - PTI.

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