chandigarh punjab has a staggering debt burden of rs 75000 crore and has to put together anywhere from rs 60007000 crore every year for its servicing this small detail of course didnt stop the sadbjp government thats just come back to power for the second time in a row from making promises in its 2012 manifesto that would need rs 8000 crore if it were to be fulfilled but that may be a tall order considering the fact that the government is yet to clear rs 2000 crore worth of bills and another rs 700 crore due to its employees in terms of arrears the states employees are also expecting implementation of 41odd promises made by the government just before the elections these would involve an added cost of rs 910 crore in fact bang in the middle of campaigning when all major parties had revealed their manifestoes sad came out with a slew of new promises borrowing some even from the samajwadi party in up its most attractive promises were free laptops with data cards for all class xi and xii students rs 1000 in unemployment allowance to the educatedbutunemployed free cycles to each girl student from class ix onwards replacement of the entire fleet of old state transport buses with new ones that came fitted with acs and wifi connectivity for the whole of punjab the akalis also promised cash incentives on the birth of a girl child and help for her school education that was not all the number of designated bpl families who were told they would be given free gas connections went up substantially then there was free medical care free power up to a point and free 5 marlaplots punjab has a system of marlas to measure land to the financially weaker sections of society ludhiana was promised a metro and cancer speciality hospitals to the majha malwa and doaba regions it was not clear though whether these would be in partnership with private players or the state would bear the entire expense this has led some in the bureaucracy to quote what former finance minister and rebel akali leader manpreet badal whose hopes of starting a political career on his own came a cropper with no wins registered against his name this time once remarked while maintaining that the states babus would have to find ways of providing the money on their own he had added that the situation was like that of retreating armies laying a minefield for advancing enemies this government has also done the same he said little realizing that they would have to walk on the same path punjab assembly elections 2012elections 2012 news