SAD condemns Manpreet Singh Badal for flying off to a jaunt in Swiss Alps with family

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday condemned the state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal for "flying off to a jaunt along with his family in the Swiss Alps in the name of attending the Davos Summit".

In a statement here, former minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said it was shocking that the finance minister who had announced that he was against foreign trips and who had even refused to offer tea to guests to save money, had no qualms about attending repeated annual meetings at Davos.

"Manpreet has failed to explain one benefit of attending the Davos Summit last year. He has failed to mention a single investment coming into the State following his visit last year. However this has not dissuaded him from proceeding on a holiday again along with a contingent of officers as well as his family", Cheema said.

Cheema said the hollowness of Manpreet's claims of austerity had already been exposed by an RTI inquiry revealing the presence of 27 air conditioners at his official residence in Chandigarh. "The Finance Minister has also spent a large amount of money in modernizing his office even as he preaches frugality to others", he said.

The SAD leader said it was a cause of concern that even as taxpayers' money was being used to finance expensive trips to Davos, no solution was forthcoming on the total freeze on all development works following a notification by the finance department.

He also said that before leaving for Davos, Manpreet Badal did not think it fit to release the Dearness Allowance dues of State employees which had gone up to Rs 4,000 crore. "The Finance Minister had no qualms in extending the tenure of the Sixth Pay Commission and even now is refusing to regularise more than 27,000 contractual employees whose case was cleared by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government".

Cheema said as a first step the government could ban foreign jaunts besides doing away with an army of advisors and superannuated officers on its rolls.

He said besides this a concrete plan should be devised to bring Punjab back on its feet by removing wasteful expenditure as well as inefficiencies and large-scale corruption which has paralyzed government functioning.

"Then only should finance ministers of Punjab be allowed to extol about their word at summits abroad. It is of no use to attend such events and waste public money when your own house is in disorder and needs urgent attention", he added.