DW BUREAU
The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Saturday rebuked the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government for having an extremely lax approach to getting funds released from the BJP-led NDA government in the centre.

Referring to a news report, Bajwa said that the BJP-led Union government had not released the sum of around 10,000 crores under various schemes and projects including, Rural Development Funds (RDF), National Health Mission (NHM) and Sarv Sikhiya Abhiyan (SSA).

Bajwa said that in some cases like NHM, it is the AAP government in Punjab that failed to comply with norms and policies and consequently, the Union Health Ministry halted the flow of funds to the state. Meanwhile, the blocked amount under NHM has reached Rs 1000 crore.

"The AAP government, particularly the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann should leave his arrogance aside and sort the issue of fund blockage with the Union Government out on a priority basis. It has also been observed that the Punjab government was misusing the funds released by the Union Government. ", Bajwa added.

Senior Congress Leader Bajwa said that due to poor management of the economy by the finance ministry of the state, the outstanding debt in the state has been spiraling rapidly. Since the economy of Punjab has been in a knee-deep crisis, the Punjab CM has now turned to former economic advisor to the Government of India Arvind Subramanian for suggestions to bring the state's economy back on track.
(editor@dailyworld.in)