Chandigarh: The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, on the occasion of Women’s Day on Saturday, hit out at chief minister Bhagwant Mann for what he alleged, deceiving the women of the state with the hollow promise of Rs 1,000 per month stipend made ahead of 2022 assembly elections.
Stating that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) promise made ahead of 2022 assembly election to provide Rs 1,000 per month stipend to women over the age of 18 if it came power, has not been fulfilled, the senior Congress leader Bajwa said that the women of Punjab will never forgive the AAP for befooling them with a false promise to garner their votes.
He said that he will raise this issue in the assembly and that the AAP government should be prepared to provide three years of arrears to the women as the original promise was to launch the same right after forming the government. The estimated population of women over 18 years of age in Punjab is one crore and therefore, the AAP government owes Rs 36,000 crore to them, he held.
“Initially, the AAP promised to provide Rs 1,000 per month stipend to women and when questions were raised about the delays in implementing the scheme, instead of launching it, CM Mann, in May 2024, announced that the amount would be hiked to Rs 1,100 per month.
Still, the promise seems far from being fulfilled’’, Bajwa said and added that AAP’s pretence in launching this scheme has already been unmasked by a senior bureaucrat as he has disclosed that if at all, the scheme is implemented, it will only be extended to non-income-tax-paying women, Bajwa further held.
