Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday lashed out at the Congress-led Punjab Government for its failure to pay salaries to its employees, pension to the old, and ‘Shagun’ for dalit girls, while allegedly splurging crores to renovate already well furnished Ministers’ houses.
Citing the information sought through Right to Information (RTI) Act pertaining to renovation of Ministers’ houses, AAP MlA and the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira condemned the “penny wise pound foolish” approach of the Capt Amarinder Singh Government.
“While the Government was unable to honour its social welfare schemes like the old age pension, shagun scheme, Atta-Dal scheme and is unable to pay salaries and pensions to its employees, it is wasting public exchequer money to renovate the houses of Ministers and the MlA flats that are already well furnished,” he said.
Khaira said that as per RTI information received, the Advocate General has spent more than Rs one crore to create a camp office and renovate his official house. He wondered why the Advocate General has created a camp office when he already has a huge complex at the High Court barely couple of kilometres away from his home. “It is pure waste of public money for personal whims and fancies,” he said.
He said the Chief Minister has spent approximately Rs 50 lakh for his house and Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjeet spent more than Rs 35 lakh. “Similarly, the Finance Minister, who is supposed to be custodian of public exchequer, has also gone in for major renovation amounting to Rs 25 lakh. So is the case of other Ministers who too are bent upon wasting people’s money,” he added.
Khaira said that the Punjab government is closing down state-owned thermal power plants with the argument that Punjab will save money. Similarly, the government is planning to close down 800 government schools again to save money but unfortunately when it comes to the luxury of Ministers and the Chief Minister, the said argument does not apply, he said.
He stated that the government should realise that it is under a colossal debt of Rs 2.5 lakh crore, therefore, spending money on such “non-productive ventures” only shows the utter callous and non-serious attitude of the Capt Amarinder government. Khaira said that the Government should have spent those crores of rupees to strengthen schools or Government run hospitals instead of spending money for their homes and camp offices.
He advised the Government to set its priorities right to first work for public rather than for self.