Why AAP chasing target of Rs 1,100 per month honorarium to every woman in Punjab

The inability to give Rs 1,100 per month honorarium to every woman above 18 years of age in Punjab, promised by the Aam Aadmi Party in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly poll, is becoming their “big unachievable target”.

Three-and-a-half years after it came to power, the ruling party is juggling its resources to fulfil its promise. That amounts to Rs 12,000 crore per annum, a significant sum of money in a cash-strapped state.

The AAP government doesn’t hide the fact that its revenues are low and its expenditure high. Considering that the state government has the highest debt to the GSDP ratio and over 70 per cent of its total revenue goes into meeting just the committed liabilities of the state, there is little leg room available with the state government to set aside the money for giving yet another freebie.

But with less than 15 months left for the elections, scheduled for February 2027, the unfulfilled promise is chasing AAP leaders like a persistent shadow. The Opposition’s taunts are getting saltier. With the campaign for the Tarn Taran bypoll, scheduled for November 11, now on at full swing, the issue has again raised its head.

No wonder that Chief Minister and campaigner-in-chief Bhagwant Mann had to himself assert earlier this week during campaigning that the honorarium to women will be given in the coming fiscal, and provisions for the same will be made in the next Budget. The problem is that AAP has already committed to a dole of Rs 3,000 in Bihar for every woman, where it is contesting elections on 121 seats. Naturally, this has given the Opposition much more fodder to raise its non-implementation in Punjab.

Worse, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have already started giving their promised honorariums to women.

In the wake of the now-withdrawn land-pooling policy and the Centre’s lacklustre approach to giving compensation to flood-affected Punjab — an issue now mired in party politics — the AAP government is trying hard to raise its own funds.

Some of these exercises include the legitimate sale of common village lands known as jumla malkan land, selling unutilised government-owned properties under the old Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands Scheme, etc.