High time for harsh decisions

High time for harsh decisions
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd)

SPeaking to the full panel of the Planning Commission, the Prime Minister expressed serious concern at the rising subsidy bill. He was perhaps echoing the misgivings of Punjab’s Finance Minister Manpreet Badal who has been opposed to the idea of subsidies and sops. Since then, a number of economists too have spoken against sops.

Subsidies take away what should rightly go into priority spending, especially in education, health care and infrastructure, which in the long run usher in prosperity for all. Political parties promise sops which in some cases amounts to promissory notes for a set of voters to draw on their votes. This practice is a form of bribery or the spirit of  “code of conduct” to earn votes.

Not all commitments made in a political party’s manifesto can be implemented. For instance, the Shiromani Akali Dal is forgetful of the commitment made in its manifesto regarding issues related to sharing of Punjab’s river waters. Or the ‘Garibhi hatao’ in the Congress manifesto eventually ended up as ‘Garibh hatao’. This piece will confine to the issue of sops offered to the poor, and not so poor, of Punjab. 

Free electricity to farmers meant to help the poor agriculturists has in reality worked to their disadvantage. It has led to gross abuse for uses other than agriculture and has helped the richer farmers. For only they can afford deep boring and installation of heavy duty and expensive submersible pumps. This has also led to indiscriminate drawing of water by the rich, resulting in ever lowering of the water table, making it all the more difficult for the poor to reach it. This receding water level has had yet another fallout, in that certain species of trees are drying up. If this trend continues, in a couple of decades, parts of Punjab will turn into a desert. 

This sop to the farmers has resulted in electricity becoming more expensive for industry. Arm-twisting by the BJP has made the Chief Minister extend electricity at concessional rates to the householders as well. This will further increase the cost of electricity for industry and impose an additional burden on the exchequer. It will be an added disincentive for industry to come to Punjab and some existing units will be forced to opt out of the province. Eventually, this will result in unemployment for the children of poor farmers. A sop meant for the poor has actually worked against the poor.

The poor do need help and so there is some merit in giving them dal and atta at subsidised rates. Having made this commitment in the manifesto, the Akali Dal finds itself in a bind. To escape this trap, it would be better to convert this subsidy into food for work: retaining some content of subsidy in the programme.

The poor in the villages can be given work in cleaning up of clogged canals and water channels, building new roads and widening existing ones, clearing and deepening village ponds, digging wells to trap rain water to recharge ground water, planting of trees etc. Above all, it must be ensured that full benefits of welfare schemes reach the target groups and all seepages enroute are plugged.
The state’s debt burden is a whopping Rs 52,000 crore and is rising. There are large leakages in VAT and other revenue incomes. The bulk of the state’s revenues goes into maintaining over bloated and highly corrupt government machinery, leaving very little for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other developmental work.

Punjab’s GDP growth is 4. 5 per cent as against 12 per cent of Himachal Pradesh and 14 per cent of Haryana — the two weaker siblings of the triplet once known as East Punjab. A large number of government employees including teachers cannot be paid salaries regularly due to financial constraints. Soon the fallout of the Sixth Pay Commission will engulf the province, driving it further into debt. 

The state’s coffers are empty and yet the Chief Minister keeps doling out money for unproductive ventures and to self-serving groups. The state now wants to sell family silver (government land) to meet routine expenses. Education is in a mess. There is no public healthcare worth the name. No industry has come to the state. Realty projects are taking up valuable agricultural land and would create no jobs or wealth but result in jhuggi colonies of migrant labour on government land. The world over high rise buildings are preferred to save good agricultural land, but in Punjab there is a nexus between those owning land near big towns, authorities sanctioning the change of land use, passing housing projects and the builders.

Unemployment stalks the youth. They are simply unemployable. The education standard is so poor that they find it hard to even clear the written  entrance test for the officer cadre of the Army — a cadre to which youth from Punjab contributed in substantial numbers. Of the 600 cadets that passed out of IMA, Dehradun last December, only 17 were from Punjab. 

While there is a crying need to downsize the government’s workforce, no senior bureaucrat seems to retire; before he retires another job is created for him. More and more districts and divisions are being created which will be a heavy burden on the state exchequer. Police is far too bloated and top heavy. We must downsize the government machinery and deploy finances thus saved for education and development. All leakages in the revenue collection system must be plugged and the scourge of corruption tackled frontally. 

Only hard decisions and stringent measures can salvage Punjab’s deteriorating state of affairs. All Punjabis share Mr Manpreet Badal’s concerns with equal anxiety. He has the vision and will to set the state on the path of prosperity and financial wellbeing. He needs the people’s and the party’s wholehearted support. Mrs Bhattal’s jab that he is the right man in the wrong party is ill-founded, because he is the right man in any party.

The writer is a former Deputy Chief of Army Staff


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