Chandigarh, Oct 25 — The Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal is more concerned about the bus mafia brought in from other states than the safety of the state's elderly residents.
"That is why he (Arvind Kejriwal) is turning the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)'s notice regarding safety issues involving buses operating under the Chief Minister's Pilgrimage Scheme into a political issue," Punjab BJP President Kewal Singh Dhillon said.
In a statement here, Dhillon added that the Human Rights Commission had taken action against 1,000 buses across the country over the past year due to incidents of fires involving sleeper buses.
"Such incidents have been occurring repeatedly, resulting in the loss of lives. Linking this action exclusively to Punjab is nothing but an outright falsehood," he said.
He added that in January, the Punjab government had informed the Human Rights Commission that no sleeper buses were registered in Punjab.
"This means that all the buses operating under the pilgrimage scheme in Punjab are private buses brought in from other states. Not only have the buses been brought in from outside Punjab, but the people running the scheme have also been brought in from Delhi. Kejriwal is running Punjab's Chief Minister's Pilgrimage Scheme like a bus mafia through his close associate," Dhillon alleged.
He said that making false statements was a habit of Kejriwal.
Before accusing anyone of attempting to discontinue the pilgrimage scheme in Punjab, Kejriwal should clarify whether the scheme in Delhi was discontinued after the BJP formed the government there.
"Kejriwal must answer this question first," Dhillon said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Shwait Malik targeted the AAP government and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the collapsing healthcare system.
Malik said that government hospitals in the state are functioning without specialist doctors.
Citing the health department's figures, he added that nearly 1,000 out of 2,098 sanctioned posts of specialist doctors are vacant in the state.
Malik said the crisis aggravated because the Punjab government has not made a single regular recruitment of specialists since 2022.