No mention of AAP’s pre-poll promises in Punjab budget: Bajwa

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday presented the state budget for 2024-25 with a total outlay of ₹2.04 lakh crore

Punjab Vidhan Sabha leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said the Aam Aadmi Party’s guarantees given before of the state polls were missing in the state budget presented by finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday.

Congress member and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa slammed the Bhagwant Mann government over the issues of “rising” debt and said it has borrowed ₹68,000 crore in the past two years. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

While taking part in a debate on the state budget, Bajwa referred to AAP’s promise of monthly pension of ₹1,100 to women and minimum support price (MSP) on all crops.

“It is unfortunate that this is the second budget of the AAP government since they came into power, but the implementation of the guarantees remained elusive,” said Bajwa.

The LoP said when AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was questioned about funds required for the initiatives, he used to say that he has served as an officer of the in Indian Revenue Services and he knows how to raise funds. Kejriwal had promised that on coming to power, the AAP government would raise ₹20,000 crore in royalty from sale of sand and would plug leakage in the revenue collection hence raising ₹34,000 crore more.

“After coming to power, the AAP government during its 20-month tenure has raised ₹60,000 crore loans to run daily affairs of the state. At this rate, the amount would cross ₹4 lakh crore on completion of the government’s five-year term,” said Bajwa. He said the debt on boards and corporations of the state government is not mentioned in the budget which is also piling up.

The LoP said of the total budget, 23% will be used for paying back the debt and interest on loans, 57.5% will be spent on paying salaries to state employees and pensions to the retired staff, and 25.14% goes to power subsidy. The total comes out to be 105% of the total budget.

“There is no mention of MSP on all crops as promised by them. Even moong dal was purchased by private traders on prices less than the MSP,” claimed Bajwa.

He also lashed out at the state government for not attending the meeting of ‘Niti Aayog’ chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We should have at least taken up the matter of pending funds with the Centre in the meeting,” said Bajwa. “If your (AAP) government is serious, let’s together protest outside the PM’s residence and ask for Punjab funds,” concluded Bajwa.