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Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Sunday presented the fifth state budget in the assembly, coinciding with International Women's Day and said that the government has focused on every section of society in the last four years.
Before presenting the Budget, Minister Cheema congratulated the women on International Women's Day and boasted that AAP is the "first government" to present a budget on Women's Day. "First of all, on International Women's Day, I congratulate all my mothers, sisters and children on behalf of the Aam Aadmi Party. Today, the historic budget of Punjab, which is being presented on Women's Day, is a great honour for women. To date, no party, no government has presented a budget on Women's Day. For the last four consecutive years, the Punjab government has worked for every section...," Cheema told reporters here. Punjab Leader of Opposition Pratap Singh Bajwa lashed out at the AAP-led Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Singh government for allegedly backtracking on the poll promises. He further claimed that the government will announce financial aid, keeping in view the elections. "When they took the vote, Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann promised that women would be given Rs 1,000 after forming the government. 48 months have passed. They are announcing after 48 months. And the inside information we have from the government is that they will make this announcement today, and the instalments will start coming from August. They have also requested the BJP to prepone the elections by two to three months. The elections are likely to be in December, so this instalment will be for two months, or at most three months, so fraud is being committed..." Congress MLA Pargat Singh questioned the government over the status of the previous medical colleges announced in the first budget. "...It would have been better if the pension of the disabled, widows and the elderly was increased by one thousand rupees, which was also mentioned in their (AAP) manifesto, but unfortunately they did not do that...In the first budget, they said 16 medical colleges would be built. If they have been built anywhere, please let me know..." In another development, women leaders and workers of the Punjab Congress, including Aekom Warring, daughter of state Congress chief Raja Warring, staged a protest against the Punjab government for not giving women the Rs 1,000 monthly allowance promised during the poll manifesto. They were later detained by the police. (ANI)
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