AAP promise of generating Rs 20,000 crore mining revenue farce: Punjab BJP

Chandigarh, July 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Kewal Singh Dhillon on Monday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's election promise of generating Rs 20,000 crore revenue from sand and gravel mining has proved to be completely false.

Dhillon said despite four and a half years in power, the government has neither curbed illegal mining nor strengthened the state exchequer. He pointed out that in 2025-26, despite all its efforts, the government collected only about Rs 600 crore in mining revenue, of which nearly Rs 150 crore came from taxes on mining material entering Punjab from Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.

"This means the revenue generated from Punjab's own mining operations was even lower," Dhillon said in a statement.

Questioning the AAP government, Dhillon asked where the remaining Rs 19,400 crore had gone. He alleged that tipper trucks continued to operate openly, rivers continued to be ravaged by illegal mining, yet the government chose to look the other way.

Dhillon further said that, despite being rejected by the people of Delhi, those running Punjab from the back seat lured people with grand promises while ending up "consuming even Punjab's sand".

He said this was the account of just one guarantee, while the reckoning for the government's other guarantees was yet to come.

Throwing a direct challenge to the government, the state BJP chief said the so-called "revolution" on whose promise AAP came to power has now been completely exposed. Their revolution, he said, was limited to hollow slogans.

"Punjab's rivers are plundered, the state treasury remained empty, and the people received nothing but empty promises."

He said the people of Punjab are now ready to hold these "false revolutionaries" accountable for their false guarantees, and that villagers across the state will demand an account for every single rupee.

Source: IANS