Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) president Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said the state needed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for security as well as economic revival.

Amarinder also criticised the Congress party’s decision to nominate Charanjit Singh Channi as the Chief Ministerial candidate despite serious allegations of corruption after the seizure of Rs 10 Crore from the possession of his nephew.

Addressing a function organised by the District Bar Association, Patiala today, Amarinder said, India faced grave security challenges from the China-Pakistan-Taliban nexus.

“The challenge will be greater for Punjab for being at the forefront with a 600 km long border”, he said, while adding, “We need a government that will take the security challenge seriously and works in close coordination with the central government”.

The former Chief Minister said highly sophisticated drones were being used by Pakistan to smuggle weapons, drugs, and counterfeit currency to this side of the border.

He criticised Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi for “senseless” opposition to the extension of the operational jurisdiction of the Border Security Force, which, he said, was the need of the hour. Referring to the economic situation prevailing in the state, Amarinder said, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Punjab was 5.25 lakh crores, 70 percent of it was borrowed.

He said it is a humongous task to come out of this debt trap, which cannot be possible without the cooperation and support of the central government. The former CM said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre was going to be there, at least, for another seven years.

“We must have a government in Punjab that will work with him as that is the only way out”, he said.

On the agriculture front, he said, the NDA had released the agriculture-specific manifesto, which promised several important things like guaranteed minimum support price for alternate crops and debt waiver for the farmers with less than five acres of land.

He assured that every promise made in the manifesto will be fulfilled as everything related to financing these promises had already been worked out.

Later talking to reporters, Amarinder said, it was surprising that despite the huge seizure of corruption money from the possession of Channi’s nephew, the Congress had declared him as the CM candidate.

This shows the level of despair in the Congress party, as it had to compromise on corruption. He pointed out, CM’s nephew had told the investigating agencies that the money seized was collected from the sand mining mafia and transfer of officers.