Punjab heading towards economic disaster: Cong chief

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress on Sunday condemned the ruling SAD-BJP government for its economic policies aimed to make people into "paupers", claiming that the state was heading for an "economic disaster". "Due to mismanagement of funds, the Badal government has been borrowing heavily and desperately selling immovable assets of state government to run its daily expenses. "The people are heavily taxed and the time is not far when people will be forced to mortgage their properties to pay the taxes," state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa told reporters here. Bajwa said that it was an irony that at a time when the financial situation of Punjab was in "peril", Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has flown to Goa for SAD-BJP`s "luxurious" `Vichar Manthan` conclave. "Punjab is on the edge of fiscal cliff...By merely controlling wasteful expenditure, the state government could have avoided the present situation that too without imposing heavy taxes like the property tax," he said. PTI