Chandigarh: Congress leader & Punjab’s leader of the opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday slammed the Bhagwant Mann government for utilizing the hard-earned money of the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) for organizing government functions.
Bajwa said if the Bhagwant Mann government actually wanted to welcome and pay heed to the problems being faced by a large number of Indian residents living abroad the state government should have utilized its own wherewithal to organize meetings and sammelans instead of using their hard-earned money for its own publicity & propaganda.
Bajwa said the Punjab government had withdrawn Rs. 10 Lakh from the account of the NRI Sabha which is absolutely illegal. The Jalandhar divisional commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra has already admitted that she received orders from the top to withdraw money from the NRI Sabha account for the “NRIs Punjabian Naal Milni ”, functions being organized at five different places in Punjab.
Bajwa said neither NRI Sabha belonged to the state government nor did it receive any grant from the Punjab government. “ So under such circumstances how can the Punjab government withdraw money from the NRI Sabha to organize its own functions which is absolutely illegal”, added Bajwa.
Bajwa said never in the history of Punjab the successive state governments ever used even a single penny from the NRI Sabha to organize sammelans. “ How can the state government indulge in such brazen looting of money for their own publicity and propaganda? This all must be investigated”, added Bajwa.