Chandigarh: The Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, unanimously passed a resolution affirming that the state's public welfare schemes and direct financial benefits will continue uninterrupted, on the concluding day of the Assembly session. The resolution was moved by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Bright Punjab Express reported, and Nation Press also listed the unanimous passage among the day's Assembly developments.
Source: Bright Punjab Express
The resolution states that the Mukh Mantri Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana, free domestic electricity up to 300 units a month, free electricity for agricultural tube-wells, the Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana, Aam Aadmi Clinics, the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra Yojana, free bus travel for women, the Meri Rasoi Yojana, social security pensions, the Ashirwad Scheme and all other such welfare schemes will continue, with benefits protected for all eligible beneficiaries. It further resolves that the Punjab government will make adequate provision for these schemes in every annual budget.
Moving the resolution, Cheema said Punjab's resources belong to its people and rejected attempts to label welfare spending a waste of money, according to the report. The figures cited in the resolution are the government's own: over 80 lakh (8 million) women registered under the Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana, which pays ₹1,000 a month (₹1,500 a month for eligible Scheduled Caste women); over 1 crore free bus journeys by women every month; the Ashirwad Scheme's ₹51,000 for the marriage of eligible daughters; health cover of up to ₹10 lakh — yaani ten lakh rupees — per family a year under the Sehat Yojana; 1,244 Aam Aadmi Clinics said to have served around 2 crore (20 million) patients; pensions of ₹1,500 a month to 30 lakh people; and quarterly free food supplies to 40 lakh families under the Meri Rasoi Yojana.
The resolution condemns statements by leaders of the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP which, in its wording, demean citizens receiving benefits, and rejects what it calls their threats to withdraw financial assistance. It calls on all parties to end ambiguity and declare their stand clearly to the people of Punjab, arguing that withdrawing the benefits would deprive households of funds needed for food, healthcare and education. These characterisations of the opposition parties are the resolution's own claims, as reported.
Reacting to the day's Assembly proceedings, Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa alleged that over the past five years the AAP government had brought innumerable resolutions projecting them as major achievements without meaningful outcomes for the people, Hi India reported. Bajwa said a resolution can make a political statement, but lasting change needs legislation backed by implementation, and he questioned the government on the Old Pension Scheme notification, pending Dearness Allowance arrears and issues affecting young people. The state government has not issued a separate response to Bajwa's remarks in the reports available so far.
Source: Hi India
The welfare resolution was one of several passed on the session's final day, alongside the Assembly's river-water resolutions. With the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections approaching, welfare schemes — free power, women's assistance and health cover — are central to the AAP government's pitch, and the resolution puts the opposition parties' position on those benefits on the record.