The Punjab Congress on Sunday demanded a “public apology” from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for making false insinuations of bias against former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the previous UPA Government at the Centre following Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely’s letter.
The party stated that Jaitley’s “official letter dated August 19, 2014”, in response to Badal’s demand for a special package for financial restructuring of Punjab, has brought the cat out of the bag and exposed the flagrant and blatant white lies of Badal.
The party pointed that Jaitley’s letter, while flatly refusing to bail out Punjab from its critical financial mess, has also “quoted several figures pertaining to the time of Dr Manmohan Singh refuting the allegations of bias towards the State”. It added that the letter has “set the record straight that Punjab got 99.36 per cent higher central tax devolution between 2010 and 2015, compared to 2005-10.
“The letter says that Rs 4,606 crore has been provided to Punjab during 2013-14 towards plan and non-plan grants, including agency transfers. Besides, central taxes to the tune of Rs 4,431.47 crore have been devolved to the State during 2013-14.
Additional Central assistance of Rs 887 crore has been approved in March 2014, to counter waterlogging of South-West districts by Dr Manmohan Singh before demitting office. Jaitley also quoted Rs 270.70 crore worth loans waived to Punjab from 2005-06 to 2007-08, while outstanding loans of Rs 35.69 crore for central schemes had been written off on January 31, 2010,” pointed Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira.
Khaira said that the Union Minister had also “snubbed Badal in his letter by asking him to rationalise power subsidy, which is more than State’s revenue deficit for 2013-14”.
“This letter of Jaitley has not only shattered Badal’s imaginary hopes of getting truck loads full of money from the Modi Government, but has also made him realise that Dr Manmohan Singh had always been magnanimous, generous and courteous to him compared to the present NDA regime,” he added.