Chandigarh: Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh has once again reiterated that the Government had decided to waive the debt of the farmers. The CM was interacting with the media after the conclusion of the first Punjab Vidhan Sabha session of the new government here on Wednesday.
In keeping with the Congress party manifesto promises, Amarinder announced that lands of farmers will not be allowed to be auctioned by the collateral agencies. A key pre-election promise of the Congress government, the waiver of farm loans will entail an addition burden of Rs 80,000 crore on the Punjab government, which is already living beyond its means with a debt of Rs 1.25 lakh crores.
Earlier, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal presented a vote on account of Rs 29,389 crore for expenditure for three months of the next fiscal, beginning April 1.
The appointment of advisers/OSDs in the Congress government and the proposal to bring in a legislation for appointing chief parliamentary secretaries rocked the House as AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said these were a burden on the state exchequer. He raised the issue that the supplementary grants for 2016-17 had already crossed Rs 25,000 crore.
Speaker Rana KP refused to record any comment made by the Bains brothers of the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), as they had refused to sit on the allotted seats.
Also, AAP MLAs protested against the LIP MLAs being given seats away from the AAP MLAs.
AAP and LIP MLAs moved into the well of the House to protest against the Bains brothers not being allowed to speak.
There were differences between Khaira and Leader of Opposition HS Phoolka as Khaira led the AAP and LIP MLAs to protest as they sat in the well of the House. Phoolka, on the other hand, continued to sit on his seat.
The protesting MLAs shouted slogans against the Speaker.
The Vidhan Sabha session was later adjourned sine die as protesting MLAs raised slogans and finally got up to leave.