Chandigarh, March 8
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today described the state budget as the “wrap up of a series of lies that the AAP has been doling out all these years”, while pointing out that the state debt has mounted by about 160 per cent of the total budget.
Reacting to the announcement of Rs 1000 monthly stipend for women, Warring remarked, “it is too little too late, literally”. He pointed out, the AAP had won the elections in 2022 mainly on the promise of giving Rs 1000 monthly cash assistance to all women of the state. If the AAP was sincere in its promise, it would have announced the payment with the four year arrears that amounts to Rs 48,000 for every woman. “They didn’t do it for four years and even when they announced it today, they have not spelt out the exact date from when the women will get this much of little money. “IT is like a post dated cheque with no guarantee of getting redeemed as the AAP is left with a limited time”, he added.
Referring to the mountain of debt that the AAP has massively added to during the last four years, he said, while the budget allocation is Rs 2.60 lakh crores, the total debt is Rs 4.17 lakh crores, which makes it to about 160 per cent of the budget. He pointed out that there is no provision in the budget as to how to address this serious challenge that threatens Punjab towards bankruptcy.
Warring asked as to when the women will start getting Rs 1000, while apprehending that the AAP government may spend more money on “advertising the announcement” than actually paying money to the women. Besides, he asserted, women of Punjab deserve the money with arrears and not the peanuts at the fag end of its term. He expressed strong apprehensions that the announcement will meet the same fate at the Rs ten lakh health insurance scheme which has been lost in the clerical procedures of registration and identification only.
