Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab President and Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann held SAD, Congress, Captain and BJP responsible for the poor economic condition of Punjab today. He said that these traditional parties and political families have looted Punjab for the decades and used its resources, land and exchequer for their personal gains. Mann said that under their regime Punjab was mired in debt of over Rs 3 lakh crores, thousands of youth were killed due to drugs, people committed suicide due to poverty, farmers were burdened with debt and Punjab's water, land and environment were looted.He said that Covid induced Pandemic has made us face the bitter truth of Punjab’s deteriorating economic condition.
During this time, the people of Punjab didn’t get any medical help from the government side. No financial aid was provided to the people. He pointed out that for the first time in the history; even Punjab’s per capita income fell below the national average. Where there was a 5.4% fall in per person income at the national level, Punjab faced a steep dip of 8.4% dip in per capita income. He said that corrupt rulers have made Punjab incapable of facing any such challenges.In a statement issued to the media on Wednesday, Bhagwant Mann said that Punjab was a budget surplus state before the rules of Captain and Badal. “Punjab has fertile land and sufficient natural resources then today why Punjab has debt of 3 lakh crores, why every child born in Punjab has a debt of 1 lakh to his or her name? Because these families were hell bent on looting Punjab and it people. They never had any plan to do anything for the betterment of the state,” said Mann.
Bhagwant Mann said that Punjab needs an honest government with clear intentions and Aam Aadmi Party will give such a government to the state, which already has a roadmap ready for the development of every sector. Mann said that Aam Aadmi Party government will implement a pro-Punjab Financial Model to make Punjab prosperous and budget surplus state. He said Delhi’s Kejriwal government facilitate people and still Delhi is budget surplus. He presented the facts that Delhi has maintained its budget surplus status since 2013-14. For this fiscal year, AAP has budget of 69,000 crores for Delhi which is double from the year they came in power. Mann said that similarly, looting and corruption would be stopped in Punjab too and Punjab would be a budget surplus state where people will be facilitated with this money in the form of best education, medical facilities, electricity, financial aid to the women and employment.