Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, People’s Party of Punjab Chief Manpreet Singh Badal today castigated the S. Parkash Singh Badal government in the state for having failed to effectively present its case to the centre for special financial assistance.
“It is shocking that Punjab has been excluded from the list of debt ridden states for which special assistance has been announced by the 14th Finance Commission. Punjab was among the top three debt ridden states including Kerala and Bengal when, as the finance minister, I had taken up the case with the centre for debt relief to which the centre had agreed in principle subject to conditions like rationalisation of subsidies. Ironically, while now nine other states have been included under the category of financially stressed states taking the number to eleven, Punjab has been excluded. This reflects the utter failure of the Chief Minister to take up the case properly with the very government in which the Akali Dal is a partner”, he added.
He reminded Chief Minister that the 13th Finance Commission had included Punjab among the debt burdened states and while the crisis had got further deepened, the centre had excluded the state from that list while adding nine more. The state government must tell the people as to what went wrong. These 11 states have been allocated special funds totalling Rs. 1.95 lakh crore over the next five years with allocation of Rs 40625 crore to Himachal Pradesh, Rs 59666 crore to Jammu and Kashmir and Rs 22113 crore to Andhra Pradesh.
He pointed that the hike in Punjab’s share from the central pool from 1.389 per cent to 1.577 per cent was just meagre.
He said now even Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa had admitted that the state had not got its due. He expressed the apprehension that with the financial profligacy being resorted to, the financial crisis in the state would deepen further.
