Chandigarh, Jan 21 (IANS): Congress leader and Punjab cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday invited Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for a debt waiver function of the Punjab government to be held in Bathinda and Anandpur Sahib this week.

Reacting to Kejriwal's criticism of the Congress government in Punjab over the debt waiver scheme for farmers, Randhawa urged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo see for himself the debt waiver scheme.

The debt waiver functions in Bathinda and Anandpur Sahib are to be held on January 23 and 24.

"With the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, Kejriwal has suddenly developed love for Punjab," Randhawa said.

"The Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government has unveiled a debt waiver scheme for the farmers of the state in order to extricate them out of the present agricultural crisis," the Minister said.

He said that Kejriwal should first make his stand clear on the river water issue of Punjab.

Randhawa said the Punjab government had, till date, waived off loans worth Rs 3,452 crore of the 4.17 lakh small farmers and 1.42 lakh more small farmers had been identified whose loan worth Rs 1,000 crore was to be waived.

Kejriwal, while launching the AAP election campaign in Punjab for the Lok Sabha elections, said that the Congress government in Punjab had failed to deliver on any of the promises made before the Assembly elections in February 2017, including the debt waiver for farmers.