Preparing contingency plan, says FM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 31

With income trickling to a naught for this month and expenditure rising, the Finance Department has been asked by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to immediately prepare a state contingency plan.

The state’s financial position was discussed in detail last evening during a meeting of all ministers with the CM through video conferencing. Finance Minister Manpreet Badal reportedly said with resources drying up, the state had to start “conserving its financial resources”. He is learnt to have said that though the government could meet the salary and pension liability for the month of March, there is no way that they could meet the expenses for April, if money was not released by the Centre.

Talking to The Tribune, Manpreet said he had been asked by the CM to prepare the best case and worst case scenario so that they could plan on using resources better.

“Our finances will take a serious hit as people will be very judicious in spending money,” he said. Lauding the decision of Telangana government to cut the salaries of all ministers and employees, he said there was no such move in Punjab.

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