Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Monday challenged the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to release the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s letter to the State Government denying special financial package.
“This is necessary to nail Badal’s lie that the Centre had not denied special package and that he would himself pursue it with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is hopeful,” said Bajwa, while responding to Badal’s statement on Sunday that Centre had not denied special package to Punjab.
He said: “Chief Minister should not forget that the UPA Government had empowered the people through the Right to Information Act and he just could not suppress any information.”
“It has become a habit with Badal, who otherwise is the most senior leader in the State, to mislead the people and resort to Machiavellian tactics of untruths. In this case too, he is blatantly misleading the people despite the fact that portions of the letter have appeared in the press. He must release the letter to reassure the people that the package has not been denied as denial cannot be relied upon,” said Bajwa.
Bajwa demanded that in the context of the disclosures made by Jaitley in the letter that the Punjab Government had been receiving excess funds during the UPA regime, the State Government must come out with the fact sheet pertaining to the last 10 years about the State of finances with each and every detail.
“This fact sheet should contain year-wise amount of central funds received by the State, along with schemes in case of tied funds, the amount spent from the same by the State Government and for what purpose. The State Government must also disclose at to what amount of finances the State Government had sought from the Centre every year,” demanded Bajwa.
The State Congress chief urged the Chief Minister to also clear the mist about the special term loan extended to the State Government during the fight against terrorism. He reminded Badal that he had organised a special function at Jalandhar to thank the Centre when the loan waiver was announced.
“Even while paying tributes to the former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral after his death, Badal had especially referred to the loan waiver as his biggest contribution to his home State,” he pointed adding that now both Badal and his Deputy Chief Minister son Sukhbir Badal blame this loan for all ills of the State without mentioning as to how many installments had been waived by the Centre.
“In case, there are arrears, what is the reason for the same. Moreover, this is not such a big amount as compared to the total debt of more than Rs one lakh crore at present,” he said.