Chandigarh, November 20
Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, accusing it of orchestrating a wholesale sell-off of Punjab’s public assets to conceal what he described as “catastrophic financial mismanagement.” He said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal have pushed Punjab to the edge of economic collapse — and are now attempting to offload prime government properties in Patiala and Bathinda as a last-ditch attempt to save their political fortunes.
“This government has dragged Punjab to the brink of bankruptcy,” Bajwa said. “What they call governance is nothing but brazen plunder — stripping the state of its assets to paper over their own failures.”
Bajwa underscored that the properties being prepared for auction are not ordinary parcels of land but strategic public assets critical to long-term development. “Yet AAP is discarding them like scrap to fill the massive gaps created by its financial blunders,” he added. According to reports, the Punjab Mandi Board has already surrendered 12 acres of long-idle land in Mohali’s Phase 11 for an ultra-modern fruit and vegetable market. Under the OUVGL scheme, the government has earmarked a wide range of properties owned by PSPCL, the Mandi Board, and the horticulture, veterinary and other departments. These sites — located across Patiala, Mohali, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Amritsar and other districts — have been queued up for transfer or auction.
Bajwa also took direct aim at Arvind Kejriwal, saying the AAP chief’s much-touted claims of financial expertise, drawn from his stint as Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, stand “completely exposed.”
“Kejriwal boasted that he would generate Rs 34,000 crore annually by eliminating corruption and another Rs 20,000 crore from mining. Where is that revenue? All we see today is smoke, deception, and a frantic fire-sale of Punjab’s wealth,” he said.
Warning of an imminent public backlash, Bajwa said the people of Punjab are no longer misled by AAP’s “web of lies, incompetence, and reckless governance.”
“They will deliver a resounding verdict — one that AAP will find impossible to recover from,” he concluded.
