He flayed the state government, asking, “How could such travel agents flourish? They made thousands of people jobless. AAP should think about how they destroyed Punjab. They said that people would leave everything (in the US) and return to Punjab, but they are selling their lands to leave Punjab, and AAP is still creating a drama.”Punjab BJP vice president Fatehjung Singh Bajwa said Mann was degrading his own state. “These agents are taking huge sums of money and sending the children to other countries. Immigration is the biggest industry in Punjab. What action has been taken against illegal immigration centres? This issue should not be politicised. The families of Punjab are already under pressure. Nothing was done when they left, and now the CM is making it political.”The Congress also took umbrage at Mann’s statement, with Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, lashing out at the Mann government for not curbing human trafficking of Punjabis in the last three years.Bajwa said that the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act 2012 regulates the profession of travel agents to check and curb illegal and fraudulent activities of travel agents indulged in organised human smuggling in Punjab. “Can CM Mann, who also holds the home portfolio, let the Punjabis know how many travel agents have been booked under the same law in the last three years?” he questioned.Accusing Mann of not announcing a rehabilitation programme for the first batch of deportees but indulging in a “publicity stunt”, Bajwa threw the chief minister’s accusing words back at him: “Mann said that illegal immigration is not only a problem in Punjab but a national problem. True, but is his government not responsible for acting if any illegality happens in the state? He seems to have been running away from his responsibilities. It was one of AAP’s main election planks to stop the brain drain by motivating youngsters to explore careers in the state.”He said that it had been ten days since the first flight carrying 104 deportees, including 30 Punjabis, arrived in Amritsar, and the Mann government failed miserably to provide a helping hand and announce any rehabilitation programme for them. He has not announced compensation for them. The AAP government has not assured them that the government would help them get their money refunded by the illegal travel agents.Another 119 deportees head for PunjabA second US military plane landed at the Amritsar International Airport around 11:30 pm on Saturday with 119 deportees. A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on Sunday.Among them 67 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each is from Himachal and J&K. The deportees comprise four women and two minors, including a six-year-old girl, sources said, adding that most the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30.
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