Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has warned against the Aam Aadmi Party govt creating “humongous” financial liabilities for the next govt by taking unrestricted loans even for running day-to-day affairs like paying employees’ salaries.The Ludhiana MP on Friday said, “A govt that is not able to pay even the salaries to its employees has no right and authority to be there.”Warring said as the govt had failed to bring out a ‘white paper’ on the financial status of the state, the Congress would bring a “comprehensive financial chargesheet against the AAP govt, highlighting how it ruined the state’s finances by wanton extravagance without generating any new funds”.The Congress leader recalled how, before the 2022 Punjab elections, the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann claimed to generate Rs 20,000 crore annually from sand mining and save 30% money from corruption.He also pointed out how the two AAP leaders “fooled” the people into believing that the AAP would straightaway start with an annual saving of about Rs 1 lakh crore.The matter of fact is that under the AAP, the situation has gone from bad to worse, and the state debt has crossed Rs 4 lakh crore. So much so, the govt does not have the money to pay the salaries of its employees, said the Punjab Congress chief.The govt is taking out a loan to pay the salaries. This is another dubious distinction the AAP has achieved as it never happened before in the history of the state, he added.Warring also criticised the govt for its reported move to challenge the high court order asking it to pay the DA arrears of employees and pensioners by June 30. “It is unprecedented that the state govt is challenging the high court orders which ask it to pay the dues of the employees and pensioners,” he said, noting that it is a blunt refusal to tell the employees that the govt has no money to pay them.The Congress leader claimed that he had credible information that the Punjab govt was seeking more loans from the Centre at a higher rate of interest. “For its short-term survival, it is putting at stake the financial and economic stability of the state and creating liabilities for the next govt as it knows its countdown has started,” he added.MSID:: 130168317 413 |
