PUNJAB

Last chance for Badal
Administrative reforms and fresh initiatives in the education and industrial sectors are what the Badal government needs to deliver if it has to win Punjab again
Jangveer Singh

While a few mega projects, computerisation of land records coupled with administrative reforms seem to be the Punjab Government’s mantra for success in its last year in office, good governance and the ability to conjure up innovative ideas to tackle unemployment as well as increase entrepreneurship are what the people could be expecting from it this year.

The state government has failed to deliver in the education and industrial sectors and its track record, as far as social welfare is concerned, is also poor with most welfare schemes being mismanaged.

Agriculture has taken a backseat and the new initiatives taken to address the issue of diversification as well as ground water depletion are a case of too little too late, taking into consideration the magnitude of the problem.

Similarly, while good governance is what the ruling SAD-BJP dispensation swears by, showcasing administrative reforms in progress in several departments, large sections of the administration and police continue to be arbitrary, ad-hoc and unfair.

On the education front, while ground-level changes have been effected through the "Paro Punjab" project, which has at least ensured the start of coordinated structured teaching at the primary level, rural children continue to get a bad deal vis-a-vis their urban counterparts. The Adarsh school project has been a failure with very few schools coming up in the last four years even as government secondary schools find it increasingly difficult to send children for higher studies and to professional institutions.

Efforts to make private professional colleges induct rural children have met with little success. The government proposes to come up with skill development centres in rural areas to upgrade skills of rural children. Coming in the last year of its rule, it is still to be seen how successful it will be because, like in the case of the Adarsh school experiment, the government will be dependent on private players to create and maintain these centres.

Entrepreneurship is also at an all-time low in the state, mainly due to high land prices, which seem to be manipulated by a powerful lobby, including politicians. Outside players, including Punjabi NRIs, are not investing in the state due to the high land prices. The government on its part is in the process of creating a land bank but entrepreneurs want land at subsidised rates in Punjab. The state will have to look into this aspect if it wants real industrialisation. It will also have to come out with a freight equalisation policy, ensuring availability of power and trained manpower.

Agriculture has always been a priority sector in Punjab. Tragically, this sector has had to deal with the most uninspiring leadership in the last four years. The saving grace has been the efforts of the State Farmers Commission, which has demonstrated new machinery; dairy farms that can catapult milk production and net house cultivation among other pilot projects. However, the government has failed to replicate the new technologies in the fields on a large scale by giving appropriate subsidies.

Though administrative reforms initiated in various departments are expected to bring in better governance, mismanagement is still the rule as far as populist measures like the "atta-daal" scheme; "shagun" scheme and old-age pension scheme are concerned.

Finally, even though its managers feel it does not make good political sense, the government does have a historic opportunity to take up the issue of the Rs 70, 000-crore state debt. If the government is able to reduce the debt or even get it rescheduled, it could yet be one of its single-most important services to Punjab.

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