National patron of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) Sampat Singh has levelled allegations of gross financial mismanagement and betrayal of the people of the State against the BJP government regarding the 2025-26 budget.
Holding a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Chandigarh on Tuesday, Mr. Singh disputed Chief Minister Nayab Saini’s claim during his budget speech on March 2 that 98% of the previous year’s budget had been utilised. Saying that he had “access to expenditure figures for the budget period extending up to February 25, 2026”, Mr. Singh, a former Finance Minister, claimed the government had made 729 announcements in the 2025-26 budget and allocated ₹7,500 crore to around 300 of them, but did not spend a penny.
Giving details, Mr. Singh said that within the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, ₹406.12 crore was allocated for subsidised agricultural infrastructure, yet the actual expenditure remained zero. Similarly, the Department of Panchayati Raj and Development failed to spend even a single rupee out of ₹890 crore allocated under the State Finance Commission for rural development. Furthermore, funds amounting to ₹248 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission and ₹73 crore for the Karnal Smart City project remained unutilised. The ₹357 crore allocated for strengthening healthcare services and for the National Cancer Prevention Program also went unspent.
In the Department of Education, despite a budgetary allocation of ₹310 crore for school infrastructure, model schools, and major science projects, the actual expenditure recorded was zero. No expenditure was incurred on schemes worth ₹306 crore intended to strengthen fire services. Under all urban housing schemes, ₹1,339.90 crore remained unspent.
Out of the ₹151 crore allocated for skill development and employment schemes — including the ‘Drone Didi’ and ‘Sankalp’ schemes — expenditure remained at zero. Only 22% of the allocated funds were spent on the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ initiative. He stated that these figures were compiled using data from the online budget allocation monitoring and analysis system. Mr. Singh said, “I will lodge a formal complaint regarding this matter with the Principal Accountant General, the Central Finance Commission, and the Governor”.
The failure to spend even a single penny on these schemes constitutes gross financial mismanagement on the part of the BJP government, said Mr. Singh, adding that the BJP says one thing and does another. The government is merely engaging in “event management” within the State. “Officials across various departments are investing funds in fixed deposits yielding a return of merely 5–6%, even as the government itself is borrowing money at interest rates ranging from 10 to 12%,” he alleged.
Rubbishing the claims of Mr. Singh as “politically motivated”, State BJP media in-charge Arvind Saini said the budget expenditure under the present regime for 2025-26 was the highest in the State’s history and far more than what the previous Congress and INLD governments spent. “It was made possible only with proactive planning, continuous monitoring, and the elimination of bottlenecks in the procurement and approval processes,” said Mr. Saini.
Published – April 08, 2026 01:05 am IST
