CHANDIGARH: Slamming Captain Amarinder Singh on the budget presented by his government on Monday, senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema said that the people of the state need a budget of Punjabis and not of Prashant Kishore's.
He said that the budget was not prepared by Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, but by Captain's newly appointed principal adviser, Prashant Kishore. Meanwhile opposing the anti-people policies of Captain Amarinder Singh government , the AAP MLAs ahead of the budget presentation on Monday held a protest march to the Punjab Assembly.
Addressing the media during a press conference, Cheema said that the budget of Punjab was earlier to be presented in the house on March 5, but it was presented on March 8. He said that Prashant Kishore was behind moving the budget of Punjab forward. Questioning the capability of Captain Amarinder Singh-led government, Cheema said, "Has the Captain government become so inefficient that it is getting a Bihari from outside and getting the budget made", adding that, "Can Prashant Kishore, who has come from outside and spent three days in Punjab, understand the pain of the people?"
Taking further dig, Cheema said that Prashant Kishore's budget was nothing but a bag of lies just like his manifesto of 2017. "All the schemes that were announced would be implemented from July, effectively making the budget a 3-month budget, " he added. The LoP said that the government has decreased the allocations made for farm loan waiver. He said that the Captain government has allotted just Rs 1, 400 crores for farm loan waiver and has not allotted a single rupee for the waiver of Dalit farm loans. Cheema said that the Captain government has produced Rs 84, 000 crore worth of debt to fulfil these false promises. "These people are dragging the state more and more into the abyss of debt, " he added.
Cheema said with this it was clear that the Captain's government was a useless and inefficient government. "We want to tell Captain Amarinder that if he is not able to handle Punjab, then there are many Punjabi people in the state who are capable of handling this state, " he added. He further said that the people of Punjab are so capable that they can run their own state and do not have to bring anyone from outside for it. Lashing out at Captain Amarinder, Cheema said that Captain should resign as soon as possible. He said that Captain was not able to run this state and had betrayed Punjab and its people, by giving the responsibility of running the state of Punjab in the hands of a 'Bahari'.