Harsimrat urges Pb govt to use additional Rs 638 cr central grant to provide COVID-19 relief

The Punjab government must use the additional Rs 638 crore central grant to provide relief to the people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and should not give the excuse of lack of funds, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Tuesday.

In a statement, Badal thanked the Centre and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for releasing the Rs 638 crore under the revenue deficit grant to Punjab.

With this latest allocation, Punjab has now received Rs 5,653 crore under various centrally funded schemes, including special funds for combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union minister of food processing industries said.

She said the Rs 638 crore should be used to ramp up health infrastructure, besides giving relief to the common people. With the state receiving these funds, it should not make any excuse of lack of funds, said Badal, who represents Bathinda in the Lok Sabha.

"The (state) government should start work on this immediately and not try to divert attention of the people by repeated talk of lack of funds received from the Centre," she said.

Badal said earlier Rs 247 crore had been received by the Punjab government from the Centre under the state disaster risk management fund.

She said the central government had already sanctioned the use of the disaster management funds for COVID-19 related works.

Besides this, Rs112 crore had been received under the National Health Mission which has not been utilised till now despite there being a severe shortage of personal protective equipment and ventilators, Badal claimed.

There is also the need for more testing kits in Punjab, she said.

Punjab has also received a Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana as well as Rs 71 crore under the MGNREGA, Badal said.

"The central food relief includes 5 kg wheat per person per month and 1 kg pulses (per family) per month for a period of three months," the Union minister said.

As many as 1.4 crore people will be covered under this scheme which is half the population of the state.

"Similarly farmers have been given direct cash benefit of Rs 2,000 under the PM Kisan scheme, besides direct benefits under the Jan Dhan yojna and Ujjwala scheme, she said.