AAP frittering away Punjab resources on advertising: Sukhbir
Asserting that it was high time that the AAP government was held accountable, Sukhbir called for an audit of all infrastructure projects that were on a standstill in Punjab because the state government was not releasing funds for them
Reacting to Delhi’s AAP government being pulled up by the Supreme Court for not paying its share of ₹415 crore for the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday called for similar judicial intervention in Punjab too.
Akin to the warning to Delhi government that the sum will be redirected from its annual advertisement budget if the shares were not allocated by November 28, Sukhbir said Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann should also be forced to provide incentives to farmers to manage their paddy stubble and implement social welfare benefits “instead of frittering away precious state resources on a ₹1,000-crore propaganda-based advertising spend”.
Asserting that it was high time that the AAP government was held accountable, Sukhbir called for an audit of all infrastructure projects that were on a standstill in Punjab because the state government was not releasing funds for them. “This, along with the squeeze on the release of funds for urban local bodies and rural development, is causing untold suffering to the common man and needs to be remedied immediately through judicial intervention,” the SAD president said.
He claimed that the Supreme Court order had blown the lid off the manner in which AAP governments were using public money for self publicity even as they denied money to infrastructure projects. He said just like in Delhi, the AAP government in Punjab was not releasing any money for infrastructure projects but was splurging on propaganda-based advertisements. “The situation has become such that money is not even being released for social welfare benefits like old age pension and Shagun (Ashirwad) scheme,” he alleged.