Responding to the letter written by Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit to the government, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Governor should not talk about the debt of Punjab because we have inherited the debt of 3 lakh crores from the previous Akali-BJP and Congress governments.
Harpal Cheema said that we have to pay thousands of crores of rupees as interest on the debt of about Rs 3 lakh crore imposed on Punjab by the Akali-BJP and Congress governments. Despite repaying the loan installment and interest, the AAP government is doing very good work for the welfare of the people of Punjab.
He said that a letter was written to the Governor as he repeatedly writes letters to the Punjab Government. Responding to the Governor's statement that 'this matter is in the Supreme Court', Cheema said that the Punjab government had written letters to the Central Government several times to release the RDF funds. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann himself has met the Union Minister and demanded this. But because of no response response from the Central Government, the Punjab Government was forced to approach the Supreme Court.
Cheema reminded the Governor that we had to go to the Supreme Court even to call the budget session. He said that if the Governor talks to the Central Government and gets the RDF funds, then the Punjab Government will withdraw its petition from the Supreme Court.
Appealing to the Governor, he said that there is a lot of hindrance in the development work of rural areas of Punjab because the central government is not releasing this fund for some years now. If the Governor is really concerned about Punjab then he should fulfill his duty towards the state and talk to the Central Government and help the Punjab Government to get the pending amount of RDF which is about Rs 5000 crores.