Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh locked horns over Center's aid to state to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enraged over Badal questioning the sate government for alleged non-dispersal of COCID-19 funds and food grains to people, the chief minister accused her of lying and misleading people to hide her failure to get any aid for state despite being a Union minister.
"Check your facts before saying anything. The state has received absolutely no money from the Central government to deal with COVID-19 crisis. Instead of using her office as a Central minister to help out her own state, she is shamelessly indulging in petty politics based on blatant falsehoods,” Singh said, in response to a series of tweets by the Union minister in which she claimed that the state received funds and grains to deal with COVID-19 crisis.
"As far as funds received by Punjab after March 20 when #Coronavirus broke out, please note the state received Rs 3,445 cr including Rs 2,366 cr on account of GST compensation & arrears, Rs 638 cr as RDG, Rs 247 cr for Disaster Mgt, Rs 72 cr for MNREGA & Rs 72 cr under NHM," she wrote.
In another tweet she said, "Centre has also sent 15 kg wheat & 3 kg pulses for 1.4 cr people which is half of state's population. It's still lying in Pb godowns & not reached a single household. Shouldn't you prioritise work & ensure this relief reaches the needy at the earliest."
She further added that Punjab has also received 10.70 lakh hydrochloroquine tablets, 33615 N-95 masks and 4,500 PPE kits from the Centre.
Dubbing her remarks “manifestation of her compulsive habit of lying and being ill-informed about even the basic facts relating to her own state,” Singh said Badal was just busy professing her political agenda.
“What we got was our own money pending since long with Centre under various heads and a lot is still pending. You couldn’t even get our own pending arrears released, leave alone getting us the much-needed relief package to fight the COVID battle. The state had received only 42 tonnes of pulses so far which was grossly less than required. We had offered the Centre to lift our farm produce but the Centre prefers to let the grains rot and let the state government to pay for the losses, instead of using it to feed the poor and needy people around the country. Leave aside relief package for COVID, the Centre was yet to even clear the pending bonus for farmers and insurance for employees,” quipped the CM.
