Trying to clear mess left behind by previous govt: Pb FM

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Thursday had a twitter war with his cousin Sukhbir Singh Badal with the SAD chief accusing the government of landing the state's economy in shambles and the Congress leader retorting that he was trying to clear the mess left behind by previous regime.

As usual, you are trying to shift the blame where it is not due @MS Badal. Revenue generation is the job of the state government. During our (SAD-BJP) tenure, we fulfilled aspirations of all sections of the society. Passing the buck gets you nowhere. It's been 3 years, figure it out, SAD chief Sukhbir said in his tweet.

Claiming that state's economy was in shambles, Sukhbir Singh asked Manpreet Singh to quit if he was finding it difficult to manage things.

For the last 3 years, you have been just making excuses.. if it is that difficult for you, why not quit instead of making people pay? We never faulted on salaries & social welfare schemes because people's lives are sacrosanct. But for you, they are collateral damages, Sukhbir said in another tweet.

Sukhbir Singh also told him that ministers in the Congress government in Punjab are now proudly receiving awards for infrastructure projects created in the SAD-BJP regime.

It satisfies me to see our work benefiting people. But can you @MS Badal name a single project of your govt which added a feather to the state's cap? he asked.

Hitting back in a series of tweets, Manpreet Singh told Sukhbir, I am only trying to clear the mess that you (previous SAD-led govt) left behind, and get rid of the culture of hidden bank accounts, not reporting on actual finances, fiscal ineptness, and cleverly crafted contracts that hurt Punjab but enrich others.

Coming from someone who left Punjab with (Rs) 31,000 crore CCL (Cash Credit Limit) debt which you signed one day before counting of votes (nearly three years ago), and mortgaged the future of Punjab forever..coming from someone during whose government social security was always in arrears, said Manpreet Singh, hitting out at Sukhbir Singh in another tweet.

Employees of four departments including technical education and industrial training and irrigation had held a pen-down strike earlier this week to protest against non-payment of salaries for October.

Manpreet Singh, however, had blamed these departments for not following the directions of the finance department to disclose their bank accounts, money lying in these accounts and strength of the outsourced employees.

Manpreet had said the state government was not short of funds for the payment of salaries to government employees, saying the pay to protesting employees of four department was withheld for not complying with the instructions of Finance Department.