AAP govt pushing state towards financial disaster, says Bittu

Bittu said the state was no longer being governed with a vision for growth but run on borrowed money to sustain the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s politics and election-centric narrative

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union minister of state Ravneet Singh Bittu on Wednesday accused the Punjab government of pushing the state towards an unprecedented financial disaster by prioritising political optics over economic stability.

The BJP leader claimed that the Bhagwant Mann government converted Punjab into a state that borrowed to spend, borrowed to survive and borrowed to maintain its political narrative. (HT)

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Bittu said the state was no longer being governed with a vision for growth but run on borrowed money to sustain the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s politics and election-centric narrative. He said Punjab’s outstanding debt was projected to reach a staggering ₹4.47 lakh crore, taking the per capita debt beyond ₹1.04 lakh. “This is not welfare. This is reckless financial mismanagement disguised as governance,” he alleged.

The BJP leader claimed that the Bhagwant Mann government converted Punjab into a state that borrowed to spend, borrowed to survive and borrowed to maintain its political narrative. “A government that cannot finance even routine expenditure without continuously approaching the market for loans has completely failed the test of fiscal responsibility,” he added. He said the AAP leadership had promised to transform Punjab into a ‘Rangla Punjab’, but after four years the reality was a ‘Kangla Punjab’—a state weighed down by debt, declining investment and shrinking fiscal space. He said every headline-grabbing announcement made by the AAP government came with an invisible price tag that every Punjabi family would eventually have to pay.

Bittu further questioned why, despite record public expenditure and unprecedented borrowings, Punjab had failed to witness a corresponding rise in industrial investment, manufacturing activity or large-scale employment generation. “If the government is borrowing at historic levels, where are the new industries? Where are the large investments? Where are the permanent jobs? Where is the economic transformation that was promised? The people of Punjab deserve answers, not slogans,” he asked, stating that the chief minister owed the people of Punjab clear and direct answers on questions related to rising debt, government’s time-bound roadmap to reduce the debt burden and repay these borrowings, creation of permanent jobs, and failure to attract significant private investment.