UT’s annual plan fund was cut during BJP rule: Pawan Bansal

CHANDIGARH: The Centrally-administered union territory of Chandigarh suffered neglect under the five-year rule of the BJP government at the Centre, said Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Chandigarh and former Union minister

Pawan Kumar Bansal

, here on Saturday.


He said to a public gathering in Sector 20 that while the annual plan fund for the UT rose during his successive terms as MP, touching Rs 839 crore during 2013-14, the last year of his fourth term, the BJP-led NDA government cut the plan fund drastically to Rs 623 crore in 2014-15 after coming to power.

He maintained that the local BJP leadership and the local MP were unaware of plan funds being cut down to half.

The former MP said Congress, during its tenure at the Centre, had chalked out a plan to introduce Metro rail in the city to solve the problem of traffic woes. A detailed project report had also been prepared in this regard and locations were also identified for Metro stations. But for strange reasons, after initially supporting the project, the local BJP MP later got it shelved without providing any alternative.

Lashing out at the BJP government at the Centre for its mismanagement of the economy, Bansal said unemployment rate had increased from 2% during the Congress government to more than 6%. The disastrous demonetisation and badly planned rollout of the GST had broken the backbone of the common man.

Hailing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a visionary leader whom the world looked up to, he recollected the then US President Barak Obama, having once remarked that if the world had even five leaders like him, it would be a better place to live in.

“On the other hand, Narendra Modi as Prime Minister had destroyed the secular fabric of Indian society and weakened the country. The coming elections are an opportunity for the secular people of the country to teach the BJP a lesson,” he said.

He predicted that the saffron party would not be able to win more than 185 seats.