Capt: Fiscal emergency imminent

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 29

Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh today alleged the Akalis appeared to have accepted bankruptcy as the fait accompli for Punjab. He claimed nobody seemed to be concerned over the financial crisis in the state. “Rather this government seems to have learnt the art of surviving in installments,” he said, claiming that “the financial emergency in Punjab does not appear too far anymore.”

The former Chief Minister was reacting to The Tribune report on the state’s declining fiscal health.

Amarinder questioned the sincerity of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in “doling out liberal grants” in the Dhuri assembly segment in anticipation of the byelection there despite knowing that the state had no money. “I wonder how Badal has promised projects worth over Rs 25 crore when he does not have a single penny in the state treasury,” he claimed.

Partap Singh Bajwa, president, PPCC, too, challenged the claim made by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal that the state was at the top. He said: “The overdraft was stretched to the last day of the limit. An embarrassing situation has been averted due to the Rs 195 crore loan else cash flow from the RBI would have stopped.”