AMRITSAR: People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) chief Manpreet Singh Badal today asked Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal to shun their “luxurious lifestyle” and amend the state’s “dismal” fiscal situation.
Addressing a press conference here today, the former Punjab finance minister said, the SAD-BJP government should drop all Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and dubbed them as “white elephants” for the state exchequer.
“There is a dire need that the Chief Minister, the deputy chief minister and revenue minister Bikram Majithia stop using choppers and cavalcades in the name of security and living luxurious lives as the fiscal situation of the state is grim,” he said.
Manpreet said when he was the finance minister, he had approached the Union government for financial assistance and was assured all help, only if the state government controlled its expenditure.
“But, when I placed this proposal before Parkash Singh Badal, he outrightly rejected it,” he said.
“My only fault was, I had always suggested reduction of expenditure, which the Badals always opposed.
I couldn’t understand the corporate lifestyle of Sukhbir Badal which has put Punjab in doldrums,” Manpreet Badal said. -PTI