Five months on, Punjab fails to clear bills of Modi’s visit

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, August 29

The vendors, who extended various services during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hussainiwala on March 23, are still awaiting “achhe din” as the state government is yet to pay their bills worth lakhs. 

Sources say Rs 22.68 lakh was spent by the district administration under different heads during Modi’s visit out of which Rs 16.3 lakh was sanctioned by the state government.  “Only Rs 3 lakh was received in advance. The remaining amount is awaited,” confirmed official sources, adding that the funds were expected to be released soon for which reminders had been sent to the officials concerned.

Sources said a large sum of money was spent on erecting the “pandal”, hiring a public address system from Dhuri, boarding and lodging of the security staff and escorting officials, printing of cards and other material, LED screens and other miscellaneous expenses. Even farmers whose standing crops were uprooted to establish parking facilities have not been compensated yet. 

Mukhtiar Singh, a farmer whose land was used for parking vehicles, said the affected farmers had been doing the rounds of various government offices for the past several months, but not a single rupee had been paid to them yet. 

Official sources said 10 acres were acquired for parking vehicles against which the farmers were promised a compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre. Bobby Khurana, who put up LED screens for the live coverage of Modi’s address, is also awaiting the release of payment. “We have approached the Deputy Commissioner and the Red Cross offices several times, but to no avail,” he said. 

Ashok Behal, secretary, Red Cross, said several reminders had been sent to the Finance Department to release the sanctioned amount. 

“As soon as the money is released, we will make the payments,” he said. 

On the remaining Rs 6 lakh that has not been sanctioned, Behal said the matter was under consideration and the administration was trying to make arrangements for it.

Tight security arrangements were put in place for the Modi’s maiden visit to the state. Special Protection Group (SPG) officials arrived here several days in advance and almost 50 IPS/PPS officials from three police zones, including more than five Inspector Generals, eight Deputy Inspector Generals, 12 Senior Superintendents of Police and two dozen Senior Superintendent-rank officials, besides thousands of policemen, were deployed on security duty.