'AAP creating huge financial liabilities for next govt': Punjab Cong Prez Warring

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday warned that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was creating massive financial liabilities for the next dispensation through alleged mismanagement and excessive borrowing, even to meet routine expenses such as salaries.

He said a government that is unable to pay its employees’ salaries has no moral right to remain in power.

Warring alleged that since the government had failed to present a ‘white paper’ on the state’s financial condition, the Congress would release a comprehensive financial chargesheet detailing how the AAP government had “ruined” Punjab’s finances through extravagance without generating new revenue.

The PCC chief recalled that ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann had promised to generate Rs 20,000 crore annually from sand mining and claimed they would save 30 per cent through curbing corruption. He said these claims had misled the public into believing that the government would begin with annual savings of nearly Rs 1 lakh crore.

“Under the AAP, the situation has gone from bad to worse, and the state’s debt has crossed Rs 4 lakh crore,” Warring said, adding that the government was now taking loans even to pay salaries. “This is a dubious distinction that has never happened before in the state’s history,” he added.

He also criticised the government’s reported move to challenge a High Court order directing it to clear dearness allowance (DA) arrears of employees and pensioners by June 30. Calling it unprecedented, he said the move effectively signalled the government’s inability to pay its dues.

Warring further claimed that the state government was seeking additional loans from the Centre at higher interest rates. “For its short-term survival, it is jeopardising the state’s financial stability and creating liabilities for the next government, as it knows its countdown has begun,” he said.