Punjab’s Opposition parties on Sunday slammed the AAP government over mounting state debt and sought to know how it supposed to fund the scheme providing a monthly stipend to women.The state’s main Opposition Congress said the government should have made a provision in the Budget to pay Rs 48,000 to each eligible woman, compensating for the four-year delay in meeting the pre-poll promise.“Had the Bhagwant Mann government been truly sensitive towards women, it should have made a provision in the Budget to give each woman a lump sum of Rs 48,000 for the past four years, calculated at Rs 1,000 per month,” said Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa.He said the announcement of close to the election year clearly showed that the announcement was “politically timed” rather than a result of responsible governance.Bajwa also highlighted the alarming rise in Punjab’s debt under the AAP government. He said when AAP came to power, the state’s debt stood at around Rs 2.84 lakh crore, which has now ballooned to nearly Rs 4.17 lakh crore.Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar termed as “misleading” the AAP government’s claims of meeting the poll promises.He asked as to how the cash-strapped government was planning to arrange funds for the scheme providing a monthly honorarium to women. “The government is promising Rs 1,000 per month to women, but where will the money come from?” he said. “This is not a Budget that fulfils guarantees. Instead, it uproots the roots of Punjab,” he added. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the AAP government had to take an unprecedented loan of Rs 52,000 crore to finance the monthly honorarium for state women, which he said was an attempt by ruling AAP to “buy votes” ahead of the Assembly poll.Addressing the party’s Punjab Bachao Rally at Maur in Bathinda, Sukhbir said, “If the AAP government was serious about doing anything for the women of the state, it would have allocated Rs 66,000 for each woman starting from the day the AAP government was formed. This was the promise of AAP.” “However, instead of doing this, the AAP government wants to steal their votes by giving them this allowance for a few months. I appeal to women to take what they get but teach this government a befitting lesson in the 2027 elections,” he added.