With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announcing an agitation from 2 October against the Congress government’s failure to keep its pre-poll promises, the Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh on Sunday said instead of questioning his government’s functioning, the saffron party should explain the reason for not fulfilling the promises made to the people in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Attacking the Punjab BJP president Shwet Malik for his comments that the Congerss government was a failure on all fronts, the CM said it will be better if Malik explains to the people why the BJP has not fulfilled the promises of creating employment for 2 crore youths every year, controlling fuel prices, checking the slide of the rupee, bringing back black money and doubling the farmers’ income.

The CM said Malik was resorting to cheap tactics to divert the people’s attention from his own party’s failure at the Centre.

Amarinder said in the last one and a half years, his government had provided jobs, in private and government sectors and through self-employment, to 3.89 lac youths, which translated to almost 695 youths gaining employment every day.

He said for the first time in the last many years, the real estate sector in Punjab was witnessing an upward swing, as stamp duty and registration revenue collections were up by 15 per cent. “In fact, revenue collections in August have increased by 35.71 per cent, as compared to August last”, said the CM.

As regards the agriculture sector, Amarinder reminded Malik that Punjab recorded the highest production of wheat, paddy and cotton last year and is poised to cross all records this year too.

“We produced 178.50 lac tons of wheat in Rabi 2018 with the per hectare productivity of 50.90 quintals, the highest ever. Similarly, the production of paddy in kharif 2017 was an all-time high at 199.72 lac tons, with a record per hectare yield of 65.16 quintals”, he said.

Amarinder said all this happened due to good management on account of timely supply of quality seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals, power for tubewells and canal irrigation.

The CM said industry, which fled Punjab due to the lopsided policies and mass corruption during the Akali-BJP regime, has finally started looking towards the state. He said 209 applications for industrial projects, with proposed investment of Rs. 11,000 crore and jobs for 71,635 people, have been received in the past 18 months and most of these will see the light of the day soon.