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About Sukhbir’s exit and a bad budget

Former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s unceremonious exit was among the major issues deliberated on in the Punjabi media.

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Former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s unceremonious exit was among the major issues deliberated on in the Punjabi media. The Akali Dal-BJP government’s “lacklustre budget” this week, too, got its share of attention.

Rozana Spokesman, a Punjabi daily from Mohali, reminded everybody the fanfare with which Sukhbir was installed deputy chief minister. Officially, the function, it was said, cost the state exchequer Rs57 lakh. But unofficial estimates said that the expenditure was upto Rs5 crore. The function was attended by by BJP president Rajnath Singh, former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah and former Haryana chief minister Om Parkash Chautala. The newspaper wondered why Sukhbir could not get elected to the assembly within the stipulated 6 months and had to ultimately resign.

Nawan Zamana, a Jalandhar-based Punjabi daily with Leftist leanings, also lambasted the Badal family for taking the state for a ride. “Sukhbir discharged his duties as a deputy chief minister with no public mandate for six months and took decisions whose constitutional validity could be questioned,” said the newspaper.

Chandigarh-based Punjabi daily Desh Sewak gave wide coverage to Congress MLA
JS Khangura’s statement questioning the propriety of having a deputy chief minister in Punjab. Khangura wanted to know why the chief minister chose to make his son deputy chief minister after completing two years of his tenure. “Was it meant to promote family rule or was it an administrative requirement,” Khangura wanted the chief minister to clarify.

Other Punjabi dailies criticised the 2009-10 annual budget. The Punjabi Tribune called it a “directionless budget”. “Even if it proposed no new taxes, the budget did not seem to be giving direction to the limping economy of the state,” the newspaper said. The budget provided no relief to farmers, traders or industrialists.

Jalandhar-based Punjabi daily Daily Ajit said the budget had an eye on the coming by-election to three Assembly seats. There was no effort to generate resources or impose any new taxes to jack up the state’s economy. The increasing deficit could only be ominous for the state finances even as no stringent measures were proposed to tie up loose ends, it said. 
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