Employees of the state government in Punjab have been guaranteed by Harpal Singh Cheema that their salaries will be deposited by Wednesday night.
Cheema added that there was no financial crisis threatening the state and that funds were continuously flowing into the treasury.
“Everyone will receive salaries in their accounts by this evening. Only the process got delayed, nothing else. There is no shortage of money in Punjab. “There is a continuous inflow of money into Punjab’s treasury,” state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said.
The minister explained that the government had just regularised contractual workers as the cause of the salary delay.
The Punjab government made 9,000 contractual employees permanent, due to which the process of paying salaries to state employees was delayed by three to four days, he said, adding that the state government had recently hired almost 18,000 individuals.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal came under fire from Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday following a news report that the party-led Punjab government has yet to pay its staff salary for August.
Rijiju said, “Kejriwal wants to make India the world’s No. 1, but what has he done to Punjab within a year?” He also claimed a huge amount of revenue is “extravagantly wasted” in Delhi, which is also ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party.
“Delhi is the National Capital, and the per capita income of Delhi is three times higher than the average per capita income of India.” “Huge revenue is extravagantly wasted!” he tweeted.