Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa asserted that the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal and his team would not be allowed to ruin the state financially.
“It is your family that is getting rich exponentially whenever you form the government but the finances of the state government have been going down in the same proportion. The situation has come to such a pass the slide down continues without any check”, he told Mr Badal.
In a statement, Mr Bajwa pointed out that the state revenues were not enough to meet even the committed liabilities. Salaries to certain sections of the state government were not being paid for months. The state government had failed to make its contribution thus allowing the allocations of certain central funding to lapse. However, certain funds which were not transferred to the state kitty continued to be doled out through sangat darshan programmes which were not subjected to audit.
He said the internal affairs of the Congress in the state were no concern of his and he would not be allowed to carry on with his bankrupt policies and the party was fully united on the issues which directly concerned the people.
He reminded Mr Badal that Punjab was a front runner state but that was years back and it was his government that was responsible for what was happening now.
Countering him on the charge of discrimination against the UPA government, Mr Bajwa said this propaganda was punctured by none other than the present Union Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley in a letter that he wrote to the state government in August last saying Punjab had been over-funded during the UPA regime. It was the NDA government in which the Akali Dal was the partner which had stopped the release of funds for procurement and this had happened for the first time.
He said even now Mr Badal was pleading with Mr Jaitley to release Rs 400 crore sanctioned to the state by the 13th Finance Commission. It was strange that despite having a member of his family in the Union cabinet, Mr Badal was helpless in getting the funds released from the centre while unabashedly alleging discrimination by the UPA which was self-contradictory, he said.
