CHANDIGARH: The former ruling Shiromani Akali Dal hit back at Navjot Singh Sidhu, after he released a letter to the media, asking him to refrain from playing “petty politics” and “misleading” the people. SAD secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema said, “First read, understand and then act before talking about a centre's letter. Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has written the letter (which was released by Sidhu) to the state government on April 20, 2017, requesting the chief minister to review the progress of various ongoing missions, and sought his cooperation so that further instalments of funds could be released.”
He said that even after a gap of one month, the minister is resorting to cheap political gimmicks to blame the SAD leadership, instead of fulfilling the shortcomings mentioned in the letter. “Naidu has positively observed that projects are getting delayed due to non release of funds some times by state governments and sometimes by the union government. Sidhu has misled the people by alleging that £40 million released by the Centre has been embezzled by the previous government.”
Cheema said the then Punjab government had released £3.2 million, adding that the union minister's letter is clear about the formation of Special Purpose Vehicle, and appointment of project management consultants which was the basic necessity for release of funds.
