Empty coffers, mounting debt, deterioration in governance, increased political governance through ‘halqa in-charges’, forcible occupation of government and private businesses, and much more.
Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore on Tuesday virtually placed the previous SAD-BJP regime in dock while setting the agenda before the Congress government to fulfil its poll promises including eliminating drugs, abolishing VVIP culture, a job in very household, protecting state’s river waters, among others.
Bandore, in his first address to the newly-constituted 15th Vidhan Sabha, painted a sorry picture of state’s “under stress” fiscal health having an abysmally-high revenue deficit of Rs 13,484 crore and fiscal deficit of Rs 26,801 crore.
Declaring that the state government would soon bring out a “white paper” on state’s financial position the Capt Amarinder led Government has “inherited” from the previous government, Badnore said that the Government is committed to restore state’s financial position and to once again put it on a high-growth trajectory.
“Punjab’s financial health has been under stress for some time on account of ballooning salaries and wage bills of employees, mounting debt burden, slow growth of revenue receipts as compared to revenue expenditure and loss-making public sector units (PSUs),” said Badnore.
Badnore’s 34-minute address to the assembly, while skipping more paras than reading, was nothing much but the reproduction of the announcements made by the Congress party ahead February 4 Punjab polls, besides the decisions the government took after taking over the state’s reign.
WHITE PAPER ON FINANCIAl POSITION
Governor announced that “his” government would bring out a “white paper” on the state’s financial position, besides development and the governance reforms —which the SAD-BJP combine boast of.
Badnore said that the white paper “will clearly apprise the common man of the situation inherited by the present government”.
In his address, Badnore said, “During the last five years (2012-2017), the projections or targets of the state excise and VAT revenue were never achieved…total debt of the State had increased from Rs 48,344 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 1,82,537 crore at the end of 2016-2017.”
He stated that the state government, during the years 2015-16 and 2016-17, borrowed Rs 15,632 crore on behalf of the Punjab State Power Corporation ltd (PSPCl) alone.
“In order to settle the gap in Cash Credit limit (CCl) for foodgrains, the government agreed to term loan which further burdened the state. Even the Atta-Dal Scheme and the Urban and Rural Missions were undertaken by borrowing huge amount of money from commercial banks, mortgaging a large number of properties of the state,” he pointed, in a pol-khol of the previous Akali-BJP government.
“This mismanagement has saddled the government with huge liabilities in terms of non-payment of arrears of dearness allowances, salaries and non-payment of old age and other pensions and non-payment of power subsidy to the PSPCl,” the Governor said adding that at the moment, “the government is trying to come to grips with the financial mess it inherited; implementation of poll promises will be visible in the coming budget (2017-2018)”.
He said the Government will take up the issue of term loan of Rs 31,000 crore with the Union government to help the state.
NEW STEPS
With the new Government, come the new aspirations of the people and the Governor listed out the steps the Congress regime would take for Punjab’s betterment including a legislation to prohibit ‘kurki’ and sale of farmers’ lands by lending agencies, Agriculture Production Board (APB) responsible for contract farming, and Expenditure Reforms Commission to examine all government expenditures besides ensuring prudence and efficiency in spending.
As per Badnore, the Government would bring in slew of Acts — Confiscation of Drug Dealers Property Act, and the Conflict of Interest Act to ensure that MlAs or ministers are unseated if found to have business or financial interests that conflict with their official capacity.
At the same time, he said that the existing Punjab lokpal Act would be repealed, and replaced with a more comprehensive legislation.
“The existing Punjab lokpal Act shall be repealed and in its place a more comprehensive legislation would be enacted which would be applicable to those occupying high public offices, including the Chief Minister, ministers, non-officials and officials or employees,” he added.
The government would also revisit Unified Service Delivery Centers, set up by the previous government, and required amendments would be made to improve its quality and efficacy.
“As a step towards easing debt of farmers who are forced to commit suicide, the government will enact a legislation to prohibit ‘kurki’ and sale of farmers’ lands by lending agencies,” he said while adding that free power to farmers would continue.
An Agriculture Production Board (APB) will be set up to supervise and guide production process from seeding to post harvesting operations in tandem with agriculture production plans, he said.
He said that an Expenditure Reforms Commission will be set up to examine all government expenditures, to ensure prudence and efficiency in spending by various departments and other organisations funded by the government.
“The financial crisis faced by the state has already taken its toll on the growth of the state's economy,” he added.
“Spelling strict action against drug dealers, the government will pass the Confiscation of Drug Dealers’ Property Act besides setting up a special task force which will report directly to the Chief Minister for daily monitoring,” he said.
BlAMING SAD-BJP COMBINE
Hitting out at the previous Badal regime where it hurts, the Governor blamed it for almost everything which in the wrong — right from state’s pitiable fiscal position to declining governance, from mafias to halqa in-charges, from unabated sacrilege incidents to operational gangs.
Badnore said that the state has witnessed deterioration in the quality of governance “with increased political interference in administration through halqa in-charges, forcible occupation of Government and private businesses, both in transport and mining sectors”.
He said that the government proposed to assign increased role to the private sector in providing transport facilities to the citizens, adding that “all illegal and ineligible permits will be cancelled” — in a clear indication towards the ministers in the previous government.
“There has been an increase in the deplorable cases of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and the law and order issues emerging from it and from the operations of gangsters in the state which have not been resolved yet,” he said.
He added that the previous government’s claims of governance reforms have also not borne fruit for the common man who aspired and voted for a change in the government to achieve a better quality of living.
The Government is committed to simplifying the processes to deliver services through a new Governance Reforms and Ethics Commission (GREC), he added.
Underlining the need of a complete revamp of the police and change in attitude of law-enforcing agencies, Badnore said that the territorial jurisdiction of police stations will also be rationalised and police will follow a schedule of fixed duty hours except in case of emergencies.
He said that to restore and strengthen the regimen of rule of law in the state, the Government has decided to enact NRI Property Safeguards Act – for safeguarding the property of NRIs. Besides, Cable Authority Act would also be enacted under which no monopolisation or cartelization would be allowed in cable TV networks and a state-wide statutory Cable Authority would be constituted.
DEAlING CORRUPTION
lending a degree of probity to the conduct of persons in public life, the Governor announced that all MlAs and MPs would be required to declare details of their immovable properties on January 1 each year. For the current financial year, they will be required to provide the details by July 1.
“The focus of the government will remain on providing Punjabis freedom from VVIP culture, corruption and financial bankruptcy and to restore the rule of law in order to regain the states place as one of the fastest growing states in the country,” he said.
STATE RIVERS
Referring to the contentious issue of sharing of river waters, Badnore said that the previous Government allegedly failed to protect the interest of Punjab by not properly defending the legal case and added that the government was fully committed to get justice for the state.
“The Government shall take all possible administrative and legal measures to defend the rights of the State,” he added.
He said that the Government will formulate and pursue a proposal for canalisation of major rivers of the State — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — and construction of high-speed economic corridors on bunds.
SAVING AGRICUlTURE
Other than the APB, the Punjab State Agricultural Insurance Corporation will also be set up to promote agriculture sector insurance schemes with seed capital from the Government.
Besides, the government would rigorously pursue an Agricultural Sustainability Programme with a focus on free regular soil health testing, intelligent irrigation system including drip and sprinkler irrigation, farmers' education and skill development through digital technology, greater incentives on alternative crops including seeds, interest subvention and marketing support by establishing a price stabilisation fund and adopting deficiency pricing support systems, promotion of next generation agriculture extension reforms; and use of solar energy for agriculture.
The multi-product juicing facilities, created at Hoshiarpur and Abohar, will be modernised and strengthened to encourage processing of fruits and thereby enable the fruit growers to realise a better market price for their produce, he said.
DRUGS
To ensure zero tolerance to youth falling prey to drugs, the government would launch a vigorous campaign to educate young people and to treat and rehabilitate drug users with compassion.
The State Police would take stringent action against drug dealers or peddlers to ensure that the use of drugs is obliterated from the state forthwith.