‘Didn’t spend a penny’: INLD accuses Haryana govt. of gross financial mismanagement

Sampat Singh, national boss of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has leveled allegations of gross financial mismanagement and betrayal by the people of the State against the BJP government regarding the 2025-26 budget.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Chandigarh on Tuesday, Mr Singh disputed Prime Minister Nayab Saini’s claim in her budget speech on March 2 that 98% of the previous year’s budget had been used. Former Finance Minister Mr. Singh said he “had access to expenditure figures for the budget period up to February 25, 2026”, claiming that the government had made 729 announcements in the 2025-26 budget and allocated Rs 7,500 crore for around 300 of them but did not spend even a penny.

Giving details, Mr. Singh said that ₹406.12 crore has been allocated for subsidized agricultural infrastructure under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, but the actual expenditure remains zero. Similarly, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Development has failed to spend even a single rupee out of the ₹890 crore allocated for rural development under the State Finance Commission. Moreover, funds amounting to ₹248 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission and ₹73 crore for the Karnal Smart City project remained untapped. The ₹357 crore allocated for strengthening health services and the National Cancer Prevention Program also remained unspent.

In the Ministry 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 has been made on schemes worth ₹306 crore aimed at strengthening fire services. Under all urban housing schemes, ₹ 1,339.90 crore remains unspent.

Out of the ₹151 crore allocated to skill development and employment programmes, including ‘Drone Didi’ and ‘Sankalp’ programmes, 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 obtained from the online budget allocation monitoring and analysis system. “I will lodge a formal complaint with the Comptroller General, Central Finance Commission and the Governor regarding this matter,” Mr. Singh said.

Not spending even a single penny on these schemes constitutes gross financial mismanagement on the part of the BJP government, Mr. Singh said, adding that the BJP says one thing and does another. The government only does “incident management” within the State. “Officials in various departments are investing funds in fixed deposits yielding returns of only 5-6% even while the government itself is borrowing at interest rates ranging from 10 to 12%,” he alleged.

Debunking Mr Singh’s “politically motivated” claims, State BJP media in-charge Arvind Saini said the budget expenditure for 2025-26 under the current regime is the highest in the State’s history, much more than what was spent by the previous Congress and INLD governments. “This was only possible through proactive planning, continuous monitoring and eliminating bottlenecks in the procurement and approval processes,” Mr. Saini said.