As elections to the Punjab Assembly near, the Aam aadmiParty (AAP) has intensified its attack on the Congress government in the state.
The Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is focussing on twoissues -- education and illegal sand mining -- in its fight against theCongress.
It all started with Delhi Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia's visit to a primary government school in Punjab's Chakalan villagefollowed by another visit to Makrauna Kalan -- the village of Chief MinisterCharanjit Singh Channi's maternal grandfather in his Chamkaur Sahib Assemblyseat.
There, Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio inDelhi government, saw the dilapidated condition of the schools and said that ifthe Punjab government deems itself to have the best education system then it islying and messing up with the future of millions of children and thereby, thatof the country's.
Both he and Punjab Education Minister Pargat Singh gotinto a war of words over the issue with the former challenging the latter topresent a list of 250 schools within 24 hours that have undergone major reformsin terms of good infrastructure, enhanced curriculum, teacher trainingprogrammes and showed improved results under the Congress regime.
"Punjab has the right to know the Congress party'scontribution in the field of education in the state in the last fiveyears," the AAP leader had said while releasing the list. The Punjabminister, on the other hand, failed to provide the list, giving the Delhi-basedparty an opportunity to attack the government.
Since coming to power in Delhi in 2015, the AAP-led Delhigovernment has claimed it has transformed the education system there. The passpercentage of the 2016 batch of grade 12 CBSE students was 85.9 per cent. In2017, it improved to 88.2 per cent; it then leapt from 90.6 per cent in 2018 to94.24 per cent in 2019 to 97.8 per cent in July 2020. In fact, the governmentschool results in Delhi reported a surge of 5.9 per cent in comparison to theprivate schools.
"We achieved such a great result by improving schoolinfrastructure, focusing on quality learning, investing in teachers by sendingthem for training to Cambridge University which opened their eyes to the globalscale of teaching, involving parents in their child's development journey andintroducing curriculum that helped children look within themselves and tounderstand the world in a better way via Happiness, Business Blaster andDeshbhakti Curriculum," Manish Sisodia told media repeatedly.
Earlier on November 27, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalreached Mohali where he met contractual teachers, who were protesting for theregularisation of their services and said, "When AAP forms government inPunjab, like Delhi, all the issues of the teachers here will also beresolved," further alleging that both Akali Dal and Congress had 10 andeight years in government respectively, but neither did anything for theteachers.
The AAP national convener made eight promises to theteachers guaranteeing them of changing the future of Punjab with good governance.He promised them that once in power all outsourcing and contractual teacherswould be made permanent. He told them if the Channi government does not acceptthe demands of the striking teachers, then he (Kejriwal) will join them intheir dharna. Kejriwal also promised them that a transparent transfer policy inPunjab will be implemented and non-teaching work burden will be taken off theteachers' shoulders, all vacancies will be filled, teachers will be sent abroadfor training, promotion policy will be introduced and cashless medicalfacilities to teachers and their families will be provided.
On December 4, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, who is also theparty Punjab Co-in-charge, alleged that illegal sand mining was being carriedout in Chamkaur Sahib, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi'sconstituency under the former's patronage.
He tweeted along with a live video of sand being minedillegally, "Illegal sand mining in Charanjit Singh Channi's constituencyhas been exposed. It is the biggest expose which will shake Punjab'spolitics."
"We are in Jindapur village, which is in the chiefminister's constituency Chamkaur Sahib. Illegal sand mining is going on hereopenly. Sand is being illegally carried in trucks," it added.
Chadha also wrote a letter to the forest officer onNovember 22. "Forest Range officer Rajwant Singh had informed Subdivisional Magistrate, Sri Chamkaur Sahib - about the illegal mining activitiesin CM Charanjit Channi's constituency. There was no action on the sand mafia,but Rajwant Singh soon received transfer orders," he tweeted.
Chadha on Friday said that the AAP will reward Rs 25,000to the Punjab Chief Minister if he acts against every site where illegal sandmining is being done as he has complete information about the whereabouts ofillegal mining in his state.
In response, Charanjit Singh Channi attacked ArvindKejriwal by calling him a "power greedy outsider", who wants to rulethe state and accused him of misleading the people of Punjab. "AAP supremohas little knowledge about the state and he was groping in the dark forfulfilling his lust of power," he added.
Channi had also retweeted a blurred letter in Gurumukhion his Twitter account saying that AAP can spread as many lies as it wants, butpeople of Punjab know the truth.
Illegal sand mining has become a major political issue inPunjab along with the problem of liquor, and in view of this the Congressgovernment recently introduced "Mission Clean".
Earlier this year, a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader toohad captured the act of illegal sand mining in a Facebook live post that showedtrucks loading sand at the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant. The opposition partyhad blamed Congress leader and State Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal andhis brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal of being involved in illegal sandmining.