JALANDHAR: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday laid the foundation stone of Guru Ravidass Bani Adhiyan Centre at Ballan and handed over cheque of first instalment of Rs 25 crore to Dera Sachkhand Ballan head Sant Niranjan Dass for starting the project.
As parliamentary by-poll is due in Jalandhar, hoardings about this grant were already put across city. Dera Ballan has considerable influence in the area and every party is trying to woo it. Jalandhar has considerable population of Ravidasia/Ad-dharmi community.
Meanwhile Mann said that there was no dearth of funds for this prestigious project. He said that the money had already been transferred in account of the deputy commissioner to start work on this project. Bhagwant Mann said that earlier only tall claims were made for welfare of poor but no one did the work in real sense.
He said that the Guru Ravidass Bani Adhiyan Kendra Prabandhak Committee to be headed by Sant Baba Niranjan Dass would manage overall affairs of this centre. He further said that apart from non-official members, the committee would have secretary tourism, secretary welfare of SC/ BC, secretary finance and local deputy commissioner as members. Bhagwant Mann said that dircetor tourism and cultural affairs would be the Member Secretary of the committee.
The chief minister said that committee would decide further course of action with respect to development of this Centre including the procurement of requisite land for this purpose.
However, Congress has already said that AAP government was only re-releasing the same grant for the Centre which was given by the previous Congress party government.
Congress Legislature Party deputy leader and Chabbewal MLA Dr Raj Kumar accused AAP government of "foul play" ahead of Jalandhar by-polls by releasing the grant to Dera Ballan that was already announced by previous Congress government and part payment was also released.
"This is the same AAP government which stopped the release of rest of the amount to Dera and now to evoke the sentiments of devotees of Dera to vote for them, government has re-released the same grant to Dera Ballan," he said.
Phillaur Congress MLA Vikramjeet Singh Chaudhary on Friday made similar allegations on AAP government while releasing the documents to buttress his claim and giving the timeline. Congress leader Amritpal Bhonsle said that the project was former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s brainchild and now AAP was claiming credit for it.
