The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab launched the ‘Mukh Mantri Teerth Yatra’ scheme on November 27. It will help people visit holy places across the country. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) described the scheme as a “relaunch” of an Akali Dal project in 2016.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the scheme in Punjab’s Dhuri.
Mr. Mann said the state government started the scheme to help pilgrims visit holy places across the country. A team of doctors, volunteers and officials will be travelling with the pilgrims.
Mr. Mann said the opposition has no issues to raise, so they are misleading people. He then trained his guns on his predecessors, saying that they built huge palaces using wealth secured by abuse of their official positions. The walls of these palaces were high and usually closed to the people.
Mr. Kejriwal said the scheme will help people who lack the resources and no government had ever started such a scheme. He said that it was a matter of great pride that in Delhi more than 80,000 people had used the scheme.
Former Minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said the scheme was conceptualised by the Akali Dal government in 2015, launched in 2016, and stopped during the Congress government.
“The AAP government is trying to fool Punjabis by relaunching the scheme as a publicity stunt and propaganda exercise to divert the attention of people from the complete failure of the AAP government,” he said.
