We Have To Protect Punjab & Punjabi, Not Ourselves: Bhagwant Mann
Anandpur Sahib (Ropar), Feb 5: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab Chief Minister candidate Bhagwant Mann on Saturday appealed to the people to support AAP to bring political change in Punjab and promised that with AAP government’s formation in the state the problems of common people will be solved.
Talking to the reporters during his election campaign in Anandpur Sahib constituency, Mann reacted on his refusal to extra security offered to him by the government and said, “I am not worried about my security. We have to protect Punjab and the people of Punjab. I will not take any special protection until three crore people of Punjab and holy books of all religions are protected. I am common man. I have no need for high profile security. That’s why I refused the added security.”
He said that today the people of Punjab are not feeling safe. Our priority is to make people feel safe by improving the condition of the security system. We have to secure Punjab and Punjabis.
Addressing the gatherings, the AAP leader said that today there is a huge shortage of police personnel at the police stations and check points, but there is heavy deployment of police to protect the leaders and ministers. Police personnel are engaged in the protection of MLAs-Ministers, their houses, children and families. The leaders of the previous governments of Punjab have deployed a large number of police personnel for their own security by keeping the safety of the people at bay. In AAP government Police will do the police work only. They will be removed from the security of the leaders and deployed in the security of the people. AAP government will give freedom to the police to maintain law and order and unnecessary and political interference in the work of police administration will be stopped, he added.
Speaking on the sacrilege issue, Mann said that due to the weak and incompetent Congress government, many incidents of sacrilege took place in Punjab in the past. The law and order situation in Punjab has completely collapsed due to the tussle among the Congress leaders for the power and the people of Punjab have to bear the brunt of it. Instead of working for the people, Congress leaders and ministers fought among themselves for power for five years. If the culprits had been given strict punishment in the previous sacrilege cases, then today no one would have dared to commit sacrilege again. But like the Badal-BJP government, the Congress government used the issue for their political gains instead of punishing the culprits, he said. He promised that the AAP government will give strictest punishment to all the culprits and masterminds by conducting a fair investigation into all sacrilege, shooting and bomb blast cases and will maintain peace and harmony in Punjab.
The AAP leader said that today the people of Punjab are most troubled by corruption and mafia. The sand mafia, drugs mafia and cable mafia, patronized by the government, have ruined the lives of the people. In Badal and Congress governments, the mafia dominated and the mafia-leaders ran illegal businesses together. Leaders facing mafia allegations were part of cabinets. The AAP government will completely eliminate corruption and all kinds of mafia in the governance system, save the people from mafia and corruption and will take Punjab on the path of development, he said.
