Punjab Congress on Sunday asserted that the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley must announce special economic package for Punjab as it would be a “test for SAD-BJP relationship”.
leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Charanjit Singh Channi called upon Jaitley to stop punishing the state for his defeat from Amritsar at the hands of state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and be large-hearted by announcing special economic during his visit to the state.
Channi stressed that special economic package was a “must in view of deepening multi-dimensional economic crisis as the Parkash Singh Badal government had turned the state bankrupt due to its mismanagement and focusing more on personal luxuries like making maximum use of helicopter to travel even for short distances and purchasing high end cars”.
“Victory or defeat is a part of political process but in this case, Jaitley seemed to have taken his defeat to the heart as he considered himself to be the second most important leader after Narendra Modi and his Akali friends had promised him assured victory. However, that proved to be delusion in view of the strong anti-incumbency and formidable opposition,” said Channi.
He pointed out that the state government was in big financial mess and 70 percent of the new loan borrowed is spent in servicing the old debt. “The government is not in a position to pay even salaries as one section or the other sometimes has to wait for months,” he added.
Channi, also the Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader, said: “The fate of the retirees is the worst as they have to wait endlessly for retirement benefits. The worst is that the grants given by the UPA government at the Centre were either misutilised or diverted wrongly by the SAD-BJP government to suit their personal and political aims.”
He said that it was a different matter that the Badal family’s fortunes have been multiplying during this period like never before and private transport companies continue to be forcibly grabbed. In this case, he referred to the takeover of three transport companies that are Hoshiarpur based.
Channi also urged Badal to treat Jaitley’s visit as a test case of his party’s relationship with the BJP as people wanted to know as to how the Modi government was in the interest of Punjab rather than that of the Badal family. “It is only the Badal family that had benefited by way of induction of Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the Modi cabinet,” said ClP leader adding that Modi had disappointed Punjab during his rare visits and now it was to be seen whether Jaitley had something in store for this beleaguered state where distressed farmers are committing suicides and young people dying of drugs. “The least that Jaitley could do is to announce debt waiver for farmers,” he said.