Chandigarh, Oct 2 (IANS): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party-led (AAP) government in Punjab for spending crores of rupees and bringing Patiala to a standstill to “inaugurate” a ward at the Mata Kaushalya Hospital after installing machinery supplied by the Centre during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accusing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of wasting crores of rupees to befool Punjabis that a special facility has been opened at the Mata Kaushalya Hospital, SAD legal cell head Arshdeep Singh Kler said “the truth is that the building has only been given a fresh coat of paint and machinery supplied by the Central government has been installed after a gap of two years”.

Claiming that even now nothing concrete has been done. Kler said, “The AAP government posted nine doctors at the hospital for the one-day visit of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal instead of posting them permanently at the hospital.”

Asking the Chief Minister to explain this 'profligacy', Kler said, “You cannot befool Punjabis by holding mega events to inaugurate re-painted buildings as you had done earlier also in the case of the so-called schools of eminence."

He also condemned the AAP government for bringing Patiala to a standstill to “host” Kejriwal and installing 660 hoardings in the city over a 1.5 km stretch.

“With Punjabis not ready to become part of this hoax, government employees have been forced to attend the programme with PRTC buses taken out from various routes to ferry the employees to the event site,” he added.