CHANDIGARH: One month after the Aam Aadmi Party government came to power, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said that they will investigate the expenditure of previous governments which led to the Rs 3 lakh crore debt faced by the current government.
In a tweet in Punjabi from the party's state unit, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said, "Previous governments have left a debt of Rs 3 lakh crore on Punjab, but where has this been used. We will investigate and make recovery, because it is people's money."
In the run-up to the assembly elections, AAP leaders had targeted successive governments in the state for allegedly pushing Punjab into a debt trap. Ahead of the polls, senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha had alleged that all the previous Congress and SAD-BJP governments have pushed Punjab into debt. "With a population of three crore, today every individual in Punjab has a debt of Rs 1 lakh. Every child born in Punjab has a debt of Rs one lakh on his or her head," he had then said.
Sources said that the state debt is around 2.73 lakh crore excluding the loans received in lieu of GST compensation. Between April 2021 and February this year, the previous Congress government had already borrowed Rs 19,393 crore. The government is also learnt to have borrowed from the market and raised state development loans. More than 21 per cent of the state’s annual revenue receipts in 2021-22 have gone just towards repayment of the outstanding loan and another 36.9 per cent towards payment of salaries and pensions.
While the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) welcomed Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s decision to order a probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt acquisition by Punjab, it said the inquiry should not be used to divert attention from fulfilling the promises made to the people of the state. It also demanded a probe into all advertisements released by the AAP government in the last one month in office.
"We are all for a free and fair probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt accumulated by the state but this probe should not be used as an excuse to delay fulfilling the promises made to the people," said senior leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema.
Cheema said the previous Congress government had used the excuse of empty treasury to renege on all promises made to the people. "Despite knowing the reality of the financial position of the state before taking over the reins of the state, the Chief Minister has now come up with an excuse to probe the reasons behind this position. The SAD feels the probe should not come in the way of fulfilling the government promise to distribute Rs 1,000 to all women in the state besides ensuring 300 units of free power per month to all domestic consumers immediately," he said.
He said the Chief Minister should also order an inquiry into the advertisements released by the state during the last one month in office.