AAP spent Centre's Rs 1 600 cr flood relief fund meant for Punjab elsewhere Nayab Saini

     Chandigarh, Nov 6 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Friday alleged that the AAP government in Punjab spent elsewhere the Rs 1,600 crore corpus announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the flood-hit state last year.

     Saini said he watched a video on social media in which Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann promised to compensate for the flood loss, "down to a single hen" and said he did not need to look to the Centre for funds.

     However, when floods hit Punjab, Mann did not have money to compensate farmers, Saini told reporters here.

     According to Saini, the prime minister announced Rs 1,600 crore for Punjab and Rs 1,500 crore for Himachal Pradesh, hit by landslides and flash floods, last year.

     "Himachal did not say that it did not receive the money, as it utilised it. The Punjab government is still saying that it has not received the money. The Punjab government spent the funds, which were meant for farmers, elsewhere," he alleged.

     Saini claimed that farmers from Punjab told him that AAP ministers distributed compensation cheques and posed for photographs with the media, but took the cheques back after the media left.

     "This is what they do. Then how will the people of Punjab vote for them?" he said.

     Attacking Mann, Saini said the Punjab chief minister spent five years cracking jokes instead of working.

     He also alleged that AAP failed to fulfil its pre-election promise of giving Rs 1,000 per month to every woman.

     The women were made to wait until the next elections drew near, he said, asking who would now pay them the promised arrears of Rs 50,000.

     Saini said when there was a disease outbreak among livestock in Punjab, the Haryana government offered to send veterinary doctors and medicines, but Punjab refused it.

     "This was not a political issue but a matter of humanity," he said.

     Saini also attacked the Congress, saying the party is bereft of any substantive issue to take to the people and is reduced to misleading the country with allegations of vote theft.

     "There has been no vote theft. What the Congress is facing today is the consequence of its own actions. People are now even saying that the Congress should shut down the party," he said.

     Saini also took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his debate challenge to the prime minister, inviting him to Haryana for a face-off with the BJP Yuva Morcha president.

     Saini accused the Congress and its INDIA bloc partners of repeatedly targeting constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.

     "They try to mislead people. They do not allow Parliament to function. Any scheme that the government brings, they oppose it," he told reporters here after releasing funds under various government schemes through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

     A sum of nearly Rs 4,470 crore was transferred to beneficiaries in all.

     An amount of Rs 1,135 crore was credited into the bank accounts of 35.26 lakh beneficiaries under 15 social security pension schemes, including the Old Age Samman Allowance, disability allowance and other social security pensions.

     Under Deen Dayal Lado Lakshmi Yojana, Rs 222 crore was transferred into the bank accounts of 10.59 lakh women.

     Saini announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners.

     The increase will take effect from July 1, 2026, raising the DA and DR rates from 60 per cent to 63 per cent.

     The decision will benefit approximately 2.78 lakh regular state government employees and around 2.60 lakh pensioners.

     Employees of boards, corporations, autonomous bodies, public sector undertakings and other such organisations will also receive corresponding benefits, an official statement said later.

     The revision will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 545 crore for the state exchequer during the financial year 2026-27.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)