DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Responding to various issues raised by members of Punjab Vidhan Sabha during a debate on the Punjab Budget 2024-25, the Finance Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab has successfully fulfilled 4 out of 5 guarantees made to the people of Punjab.

The Finance Minister said that the guarantees fulfilled within two years include improvements in health infrastructure by setting up 829 Aam Aadmi clinics, improving education infrastructure by setting up Schools of Eminence, free power to 90 percent domestic consumers with the provision of 300 units of free power, and enhanced grant of Rs 1 crore for families of martyred soldiers. He said that the remaining guarantee would also be fulfilled soon.

The Finance Minister said that the MLAs of the Congress party are not aware of the fulfillment of these guarantees as they are related to the common people of the state. He said that because most of the MLAs of the Congress party belong to the elite category, they neither used to visit Aam Aadmi clinic, nor do their children study in government schools, and the Power bill of their houses exceeds 300 units. He said that this may be the reason that Leader of Opposition mentioned only single gurantee and failed to talk about other guarantees fulfilled by the Punjab Government.

He said that some members of the opposition said that some important aspects such as wages and salaries were not given in the budget. He said that the finance department has prepared all the documents related to the budget with great effort, but perhaps these members of the opposition did not read the budget at a glance carefully, due to which they remained ignorant of many aspects.

He said that some members of opposition had questioned that in which departments the jobs have been given, in response to which the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has sent the list to the Leader of the Opposition through the Speaker Vidhan Sabha.

He said that some members said that the budget for education has decreased while the education budget has witnessed an increase of 11.5 percent. He said that in the same way agriculture was discussed in which the revised budget of last year was Rs 13236 crore which has been kept at Rs 13784 crore for the next financial year.

He said that apart from this, there was a question that which other organization of the government availed the loan, apart from the Punjab government.
(editor@dailyworld.in)