State headed for fiscal disaster, warns Bajwa

Monday, 08/04/2013

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130408/punjab.htm#7

Chandigarh : Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa today expressed solidarity with Punjab Government employees who are not being paid salaries in time. Stating that the SAD-BJP Government had lost all sense of responsibility, Bajwa warned that Punjab was headed for an economic disaster. He flayed the Badal government for its faulty policies that would reduce the people to "paupers".

"It is ironical that at a time when the state's financial condition is in peril, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has flown to Goa for a luxurious Vichar Manthan," Bajwa said.

The PPCC president alleged that owing to gross mismanagement of funds, the government had been borrowing heavily and selling immovable assets of the state government to meet day-to-day expenses.

Instead of imposing fresh taxes like property tax, if the government had merely checked wasteful expenditure, it would have prevented the situation from deteriorating further, Bajwa said.

An official spokesperson today said the government had instructed its officers to ensure timely disbursement of salaries to the staff. He denied the government had withheld salaries for the month of March.

Sangrur: Terming the Badal government as the “worst” in the country, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa today said the PPCC would launch a statewide agitation next month against the “illegal mining” in various parts of the state.

Bajwa said Congress workers and activists would conduct raids at the “illegal mining” sites. He said it was a matter of concern that while the common man was suffering, those into the business were flourishing by the day.

Bajwa was here at the residence of Vijay Inder Singla, MP, to pay tributes to his father, Sant Ram Singla, on the latter's death anniversary.

On SAD's “Chintan Shivir” in Goa, the Bajwa said the SAD had shifted from Samundari Hall in Amritsar Goa's seashore to discuss its affairs, indicating how much its leadership loved Punjab.

Flaying the SAD-BJP Government for the financial crisis in the state, he said all secular forces should unite against fundamentalist forces in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

Also present at the function were Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala, former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former ministers Jagmohan Singh Kang and Chiranji Lal Garg, former Sangrur MLA Surinderpal Singh Sibia, Sukhdev Singh Libra, MP, and legislators Rana Gurjit Singh and Mohammad Sadique.