Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Manpreet for special package
Chandigarh, August 19: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today said that going by the public announcement special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package to Bihar, Punjab was not even on the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on whom Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal continues to shower praises.
“Punjab was among the three most fiscal stressed states including West Bengal and Kerala when I moved the case for special assistance as the finance minister in 2008. However, Chief Minister Badal had placed high hopes on Modi but his priorities are different and dictated by political expediency rather than the needs of the states. What is worse is that Punjab is not even part of the list of states that need special attention despite staggering debt of Rs 1.20 lakh crore that is almost the same amount announced for Bihar yesterday”, the former finance minister added.
He reiterated that the state was in dire need of the special package but before that, adequate safeguards were must to check the squandering of money for unproductive programmes like sangat darshan whose sole aim was to keep Akali Dal’s vote bank intact with government money as there was no accountability about these allocations.
He said going by the total amount of money wasted on such programmes since 2007, the state government should have gone in for capital investment which would have led to better living standards for the people.
He said the basic issue was total neglect of Punjab by the Modi government and it was only the Chief Minister who could explain the reason for the same given the fact that the alliance between the Akali Dal and the BJP dates back to 1996 when the party extended unconditional support to Atal Behari Vajpayee.
He called upon the Chief Minister to forcefully represent Punjab’s case at the national rather than continuing to harp on the theme of Punjabis having made maximum sacrifices and the state having provided food security to the country as such logic cut no ice with the decision makers in the national level going by the experience since May, 2014.
