Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Punjab Government was hit by another controversy — this time over delay in employees’ salaries and “empty coffers”. As the employees threatened to go on a strike in case there was any further delay in payment of salaries, the opposition parties on Wednesday came together to take on the ruling AAP — forcing it to release the salaries by the evening after a week’s delay.
Usually, the state government employees get their salaries on the first of every month. However, the delay this time has irked the employees with their unions announcing to proceed on a strike from Wednesday morning in case there was any further delay.
The development has also given the opposition parties enough ammunition to attack the ruling AAP, which has all along been making claims of improving the state’s fiscal health.
All the main opposition parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — came together to target AAP for spending crores on advertisements, but not to pay salaries. They accuse the AAP Government of severe funds crunch and empty coffers — allegations categorically rejected by the state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who claimed that the state faced no shortage of money and “there is a continuous inflow of money in the treasury”.
“The delay was caused by a financial exercise undertaken to ensure welfare of the state...A majority of the pending payments have been made with the release of Rs 3400 crores on Wednesday, and any other pending payments will be released within a few days,” said Cheema while rejecting the charges of a financial crunch.
Cheema said that the payments, including salaries, were delayed as the state was gearing up for the revival of a special drawing facility (SDF) as per the CSF/GRF guidelines and norms of the Reserve Bank of India.
AAP led Punjab Government claimed that there was no paucity of funds and the treasury released more than Rs 3,400 crore towards salaries and other payments. The salary of Group C and D staff has already been paid, the officials said.
Cheema added that the salary credit was delayed as the Government had recently made contractual employees permanent. “Punjab Government made 9,000 contractual employees permanent, due to which the process of paying salaries to the state government employees got delayed by three to four days. Everyone's salaries have been released today,” he said, adding that nearly 18,000 new recruitments had been made by the State Government.
Punjab’s salary bill is projected to be Rs 31,171 crore by the end of the 2022-23 financial year.
In the official statement, Cheema maintained that the state’s financial health is well maintained and the treasury has released more than Rs 3,400 crore.
At the same time thanking the Government employees and other stakeholders for bearing with the State Government, Cheema said that the treasury has released Rs 2,719 crore including salaries and GPF besides releasing Rs 600 crore to the PSPCL as power subsidy and Rs 75 crore to Sugarfed.
Rejecting rumours regarding any financial crunch or crisis at the State’s end, Cheema said that majority of the pending payments have been made with today’s release by the treasury and any other pending payments shall be released within a few days. Delay in payments was all due to a financial exercise done to ensure financial welfare of the state in long-term, he added.
Reiterating Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s commitment to put Punjab back on rapid growth track, Cheema said that it is an open secret that the state was reeling under financial mess when they gained the people's referendum in March 2022. “Now, the State Government has been putting all efforts to revive the fiscal health of the state besides fulfilling the guarantees given to the people of the state,” he added.
OPPOSITION ATTACKS
Meanwhile, the opposition parties attacked the ruling AAP for making the state government employees wait for their salaries.
Targeting AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, BJP leader and the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Delhi Chief Minister wanted to make “India World No 1” but what has he done to “Punjab within a year”? He claimed that huge revenue is being “extravagantly wasted” in Delhi as well, which is also ruled by AAP.
Accusing the AAP for pushing Punjab into bankruptcy, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said: “This is an unprecedented situation which was quite avoidable if the State Government had shown some financial prudence and maturity in handling financial matters.”
He lashed out at the AAP government’s “lavish extravagance over its image building exercise in the media” while doing nothing on the ground. “Instead of spending money on welfare or paying salaries to its employees, this government has spent money lavishly on advertisements”, he pointed, while referring to the “misplaced priorities” of this government.
Warring said that this was the beginning of the economic and financial decline and downfall Punjab was staring at under the most incompetent and inefficient regime. “This is just the beginning as things are likely to deteriorate further in the coming times”, he warned.
Accusing AAP of cheating the people of Punjab by luring them to vote for it on “false and fake promises”, Warring quipped, “Remember them saying that they will generate Rs 20,000 crore from sand mining...Where has that money gone?”
Also hitting out at AAP Government over the issue, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira said: “Those propagating the Delhi model from rooftops have failed to pay salary to employees of Punjab for the month of August. This is your pitiable financial plight after being six months in office.”
Accusing Kejriwal of wasting state’s money for election campaign of party, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that instead of providing the employees their salaries, AAP Government has taken loan of Rs 9000 crores which is being used on AAP’s election campaign by Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann is quietly following his orders.
Also lashing out at AAP Government, BJP’s Punjab unit general secretary Subhash Sharma said that it was unprecedented that a state government had failed to pay salaries to its staff. “This means that the government has gone completely bankrupt,” he observed, while maintaining that this reflects the complete financial mismanagement of this government. Demanding financial emergency, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said that AAP Government had failed to provide salaries to the government staff and had also stalled welfare schemes like old age pension and widow pension.
“At a time when the Punjab Government is reeling under grave economic stress, Chief Minister Mann has been undertaking political tourism, along with Kejriwal, to visit other states...AAP Government has brought about a serious financial mess in Punjab due to which all sections of the society are distressed,” he said.