Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress President, Mr Partap singh Bajwa, today challenged the claim made by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, that the state was at the top in the country saying the official figures pointed to the opposite and he should have at least his finance department officials to know the real situation.
“One does not know to whom Mr Badal is trying to befool. Punjab is a state that spends Rs 600 crore more than it earns every month. Going by the latest situation, the overdraft was stretched to the last day of the limit and an embarrassing situation has been averted due to release of Rs. 195 crore loan against small savings otherwise the cash flow from the Reserve Bank of India would have stopped”, he added.
He asked the Deputy Chief Minister as to how he was claiming that Punjab was number one state in the country when the state government was virtually bankrupt and surviving on ways and means and overdrafts. He took Mr Badal to task for misquoting the data without referring to the base year for making comparisons.
He said he should consult his financial wizards who had provided him such baseless information to also tell him about the per capita debt. The state wise per capita income figures at current prices quoted in the latest statistical abstract released by the state government should be an eye opener for him. Going by the official figures released by his government, Punjab was far behind other states, including neighbouring Haryana.
He said this one indicator was enough to describe the real situation along with the latest financial position of the state government. He agreed that there had been improvement on several fronts as more and more Mercedes luxury buses had started plying on the Punjab roads during the last few years and this was also an indicator of development but the problem was that about 90 per cent of these buses were owned by the Badal family. He advised him not to confuse the progressive development of his own family assets with that of the state.
Bajwa pointed that law & order situation has completely broken down in Punjab which is one of the foremost requirements to attract investments. Bajwa pointed out that the last 8 years rule of Akali-BJP combine has forced 18770 factories to shut down in Punjab due to unfavourable business environment created by this regime. This information has been obtained by RTI cell of PPCC from Punjab Government. Can he deny this? He said.
He further said that you squandered crores of rupees from Public Exchequer in organising Progressive Punjab Summit and other summits and not even a single serious investment has culminated into the state. How will you explain this wasteful expenditure he asked. The NRI summit had to be cancelled as the NRIs are no longer interested to invest in their own states due to these reasons.
He said that the Akali-BJP alliance has failed on all fronts. On industrial, economy & fiscal side, Punjab is facing bankruptcy and industrialists are running away from the state. On the law & order front, the illegal Halqa Incharge system has broken the chain of command and pushed the state into anarchy. The poor level of health care is fully evident from the recent incidences of Ludhiana and Batala. On the crucial agriculture side, the Punjab farmers are not even able to get Urea and the same is being hoarded and sold in Black market. The plight of farmers was out in open in the recent paddy season when their crop was virtually looted at lower prices and payments were much delayed.
On the Infrastructure development front, all the much touted projects of Sukhbir Badal, like Ludhiana Metro, Pods in Amritsar, Mohali- Phagwara and Ajmer Pathankot Express ways have been shelved.
