Too little, too late: Raja Warring on Rs 1,000 per month for women

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday described the state budget as the “wrap up of a series of lies that the AAP has been doling out all these years,” while pointing out that the state’s debt has mounted by about 160 per cent of the total budget.

Reacting to the announcement of Rs 1,000 per month for women, Warring said, “it is too little too late, literally”.

He pointed out that the AAP had won the elections in 2022 mainly on the promise of giving Rs 1,000 monthly cash assistance to all women of the state. If the AAP was sincere in its promise, it would have announced the payment along with the four-year arrears, that amount to Rs 48,000 for every woman, Warring said.

“They didn’t do it for four years, and even when they announced it today, they have not spelt out the exact date from when women will start getting this much of little money. It is like a post-dated cheque with no guarantee of being redeemed as the AAP government has limited time left in its tenure”, he added.

Referring to the mountain of debt that the AAP has massively added to during the last four years, he said, while the budget allocation is Rs 2.60 lakh crore, the total debt has reached Rs 4.17 lakh crore, which is about 160 per cent of the budget.

He said the Budget makes no clear provision on how the government plans to address this serious challenge, which, according to him, is pushing Punjab towards financial distress.