Mann govt has pushed Punjab to brink of financial crisis: Sunil Jakhar
In a statement, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said that in just four months, from April to July, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has already taken loan of ₹11,718 crore.
Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar on Sunday tore into Bhagwant Mann regime’s mindboggling profligacy, claiming that it has pushed the state to the brink of financial calamity with addition of ₹50,000 crore more debt in just a year-and-a-half since the AAP came to power in March 2022.
In a statement, Jakhar said that in just four months, from April to July, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has already taken loan of ₹11,718 crore. If unchecked, the present government would crush Punjab with another burdensome ₹1.75 lakh crore of debt in just five years of its misrule against total debt of ₹2.82 lakh crore in last 56 years of state’s existence, he added.
Quoting the report of the office of principal accountant general, the veteran leader claimed that out of this ₹11,718 crore, merely ₹900 crore have been spent constructively, and rest all has gone up in smoke at the whims and fancies of incumbent dispensation. “I thank Governor Sahib for setting the proverbial cat amongst the pigeon by asking from Bhagwant Mann about the utilisation details of about ₹50,000 crore which this present government has burdened Punjabis with,” he said. Jakhar said that while this government makes a hue and cry over pending rural development funds, it fails to intimate people that over ₹7,000 crore of central funds have already been provided (as centrally sponsored schemes and grant-in-aid) to the state, of which only ₹3,000 crore have been utilised.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu also, while stating that Punjab is in a debt trap and the state’s revenue deficit is the highest among the 17 general category states, asked the Mann government about its revenue model and whether the state will be run on borrowings or income. “The rapidly increasing debt in Punjab is a result of continued corruption and vote bank politics of AAP, the politics of freebies is hitting Punjab in irreparable ways,” he said. Sidhu alleged that those who promised to increase the revenue through excise policy and sand mining were patronising the illegal siphoning of funds.
