Terming the decision to put Punjab’s Rural Development Fund (RDF) on hold as “unfortunate”, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged the Centre to review the decision, maintaining that the move would badly impact the rural development works in the state.
Questioning the timing of the Centre’s move, the Chief Minister said that there was no precedent to not releasing the RDF that was due to the State during scrutiny of the utilization of previous funds.
The Chief Minister said that he has asked the state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to go to Delhi to meet the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs to resolve the issue, which had hit the State hard amid the fiscal crisis it is facing.
“The State Government will submit all utilization details as sought by the Centre, as it had done in the past too,” said Capt Amarinder. While this was not the first time the Government of India had gone for a scrutiny of the utilization funds, this was, however, a first as far as non-release of RDF was concerned, he said, expressing serious concern over the development.
The Chief Minister said that doubts were being raised in various quarters about the timing of the Union Cabinet’s decision not to release to Punjab its due RDF funds to the tune of more than Rs 1,000 crore at the present juncture, amid the controversy and crisis over the Farm Laws. “The timing is suspect and points to dubious motivation behind the move,” he said, urging the Centre to immediately reconsider and give the State’s dues against RDF while the scrutiny continues, as has been the case in the past.
The funds, as the Centre is well aware, are used for developing critical agriculture marketing infrastructure like construction of roads in the rural areas of the State, marketing yards, said the Chief Minister, adding that failure to release the funds would obstruct the development of villages and could further aggravate the angst of the farmers, who are in a prolonged agitation against the central farm sector legislations.
AAP DUBS BLOCKING OF RDF AS CENTRE'S BRAZEN ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT FARM LAWS
Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab unit on Thursday termed the Modi Government’s move to withhold Punjab Rural Development Fund (RDF) as Centre’s another brazen attempt to interfere in Punjab's internal affairs by fraudulently implementing the black farm laws.AAP MLA and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema said: “The challenging situation, in which the Modi government has withheld a whopping Rs 1,000 crore RDF, reflects the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revengeful attitude towards Punjab, besides meddling in its internal affairs.”
Cheema, accompanied by AAP’s Punjab youth wing president and MLA Meet Hayer, state party affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh and state general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat, said that the move was an assault on the federal structure of the country, an attempt to implement the black laws on agriculture, which AAP vehemently opposes.
