Adopting a tough posture, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday warned the Central Government of “serious political and law and order implications” in case the Centre went ahead with its move to renew industrial concessions to J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand without the same concessions being given to “far more deserving sensitive border State of Punjab.”
Seeking direct intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this matter, he said this was needed to “save the Sate from further ruin and chaos by treating us at par with the neighbouring States while granting such industrial or other economic incentives.”
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal said that the earlier package of concessions given to these States had played havoc with the economy of Punjab and “a repetition of the ruinous decision and the consequent disenchantment and disillusionment it will set off in the youth of our State can have serious political and law and order implications.”
Protesting that any “ruinous” decision to this effect would prove to be the proverbial last straw to break our back, Badal that the Punjabis who had braved several daunting odds in the past would find “it impossible to battle the discrimination of their own national Government against them.”
Badal also referred to the “long years of militancy, which severely halted its progress and caused immense damage to its economy, development and progress, especially in the field of industry. The flight of capital from Punjab during the militancy years has no parallels in national history.”
But, said the Chief Minister, “Just as Punjabis were engaged heroically in rebuilding the State and its economy, we were dealt a deadly blow by the denial of industrial concessions granted to our neighbouring States, making business and industry here extremely non-competitive.”
The Chief Minister said that Punjab is not against incentives of concessions being given to any other state “so long as Punjab, which has a far greater claim on such concessions, is not discriminated against. This policy has already ruined industry and overall growth of our State. Flight of capital in business and industry, as a direct consequence of this policy, has severely hit the employment scenario for our youth. These factors have had a crippling impact on the State’s economy.”
He said another reason why it is illogical to deny Punjab the concessions given to other States. “The only reason for extending concessions to the States mentioned above is that they are strategically disadvantaged in terms of location. That argument applies far more forcefully to the border state of Punjab. “There are natural disadvantages which the State of Punjab has had to bear for being a land-locked border State, with a long and active border with a hostile neighbour, and practically no access to international markets. The people of the State fought these disadvantages manfully and heroically. But they find it impossible to battle the discrimination of their own national government against them.”
Badal’s letter comes in the wake of “a recent notification issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, extending the Special Package of Industrial Incentives to the State of Jammu & Kashmir up to June 14, 2017. Further, the Government of India is contemplating extension of tax concessions to the other two of States also as were granted in the year 2002-03,” the Punjab chief minister noted in his letter to the PM.