By IANS,
Chandigarh: Congress leaders and activists in Punjab Friday filed Right to Information (RTI) applications at all 20 district headquarters, seeking details of money spent by the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state on welfare schemes in the last four years.
“The application filed under the RTI Act will only ask the concerned authorities to give details of the exact amount of money which Punjab government claims to be spending on various welfare and development works from Jan 1, 2007,… actually the money was derived from the schemes initiated by the government of India,” Congress MP and Punjab Youth Congress president Ravnit Singh Bittu said here.
Bittu, who represents the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency and filed the RTI application at Mohali town near here, said the Congress campaign was aimed at telling the people that the Akali-BJP government had done nothing for them in the last four years.
He alleged that the Parkash Singh Badal-led government was only diverting central funds to run affairs of the state, which has debts of thousands of crores.
Elections to the state’s 117-seat assembly are scheduled for February-March next year.
Bittu said the replies to the RTI applications will be compiled for the benefit of the public to enable them to judge for themselves what the Badal government had done for the state’s people.
“We are expecting the RTI replies within 30 days,” Bittu said.
He said the Badal government was wasting public funds on publishing big advertisements in the media highlighting the welfare and development schemes undertaken by it.
Bittu added that the Congress party, led by former chief minister Amarinder Singh, will form the next government in Punjab.