Cabinet Nod To Puda To Mortgage Properties

In a quiet move, Punjab council of ministers allowed Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) to mortgage government properties to raise `350 crore loan for the construction of three central jails, according to official sources. Even as the proposal mooted by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the housing and urban development department portfolio, was approved by the Cabinet, the decision was kept under wraps. The Cabinet’s go-ahead for mortgaging government property indicates the increasingly pale fiscal health of the SAD-BJP coalition government, contrary to the lofty and ‘all-is-well’ claims of Sukhbir Badal about Punjab’s finances. In fact, the Parkash Singh Badal government is cashstrapped so much so that it barely manages to meet its committed liabilities, while there has been no attempt to adopt austerity measures.