CHANDIGARH: Calling the Budget 'misleading', the Opposition parties in Punjab questioned how the AAP government would arrange funds to fulfil its promise of providing Rs 1,000 per month to women.
Leader of the Opposition and Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said that the Budget is nothing more than a bundle of grand announcements aimed at creating headlines, completely ignoring the urgent need to revive Punjab’s struggling economy.
He said the Budget once again exposes the AAP government’s lack of a clear economic vision to generate employment, revive industry, or improve the State’s financial health.
"The AAP government has perfected the art of making tall claims and grand announcements. When it comes to presenting a concrete roadmap for economic revival and employment generation, the Budget is completely hollow,” Bajwa said.
Taking strong exception to the government’s claim that all guarantees have been fulfilled, Bajwa pointed out that the most prominent promise made by AAP during the 2022 Assembly elections, like Rs 1000 per month assistance for women, has been announced only now, after four years in power.
"If the government claims that all guarantees have been fulfilled, then why did Punjab’s women have to wait four long years for the Rs 1000 assistance scheme? This clearly shows that the announcement is politically timed,” Bajwa asserted.
Reacting to the announcement of a Rs 1000 monthly stipend for women, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring remarked, “It is too little, too late, literally”.
He pointed out that the AAP had won the elections in 2022 mainly on the promise of giving Rs 1000 monthly cash assistance to all women of the state. "If the AAP was sincere in its promise, it would have announced the payment of the four-year arrears, which amounts to Rs 48,000 for every woman," he said.
"It is like a post-dated cheque with no guarantee of getting redeemed as the AAP is left with a limited time”, he added.
He asked when the women would start getting Rs 1000, also stating that the AAP government may spend more money on advertising the announcement than actually paying money to the women.
BJP president Sunil Jakhar said the claims are misleading. “This is not a Budget that fulfils guarantees. It is a Budget that uproots the roots of Punjab,” he said.
"The government is talking about giving Rs 1,000 per month to women, but where will the money come from?” he asked.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal termed the Budget a misleading exercise, and alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was relying on loans and the sale of government properties to fund its promise of providing Rs 1,000 per month to women.
He alleged that the State government had taken loans worth Rs 52,000 crore in the current financial year alone.
"The government is trying to mislead women," he said.
Sukhbir further said that if the government had genuinely intended to provide the monthly assistance, it should have implemented the scheme for all five years of its tenure.
