Akali Dal asks Kejriwal to curtail publicity budget

Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for failing both the living and the dead, and asked him to curtail his publicity budget and utilise the money for improving the infrastructure of the hospitals in the national capital.

In a statement issued here, senior SAD leader and MP Balwinder Singh Bhundur asked Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to stop the politics of blame game and cheap publicity and admit that they were directly responsible for mishandling Covid-19 patients as well as dead bodies.

“The AAP government should take immediate corrective steps to improve the health infrastructure,” Bhundur said.

He said the Supreme Court had also pointed out that the situation in the national capital was ‘horrendous, horrific and pathetic’.

“In such a scenario, Arvind Kejriwal should shun negative politics and effect a positive change within days or resign immediately,” Bhundur said in the statement.

The SAD leader said that now it was clear that Kejriwal had misutilised public money during the time of pandemic and had spent hundreds of crores on self-publicity.

“This money could have been used to improve the condition of Delhi hospitals and ensure dignity to the last remains of those who died of the pandemic. Kejriwal should not dupe the people through advertisements and should bring in real changes to combat Covid-19 effectively. This includes increasing testing, which has decreased from 7,000 per day to 5,000 presently,” the statement said.