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State's sagging economy needs uplift
Core areas neglected Jangveer Singh
Sops will raise deficit to more than Rs 2,500 cr
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Strain in alliance may surface during House session
Cabinet approves Budget proposals
Rs 3,300 crore plan to set up 43 more ITIs
Damdami Taksal wants Sikh as Amritsar Mayor
BJP to protest petrol price hike on June 22
MPs’ panel to visit cancer-hit village
Farmers hold protest outside grid station
Enact law to regulate money-lending: Left
Vigilance yet to get nod for probe
WHO to collect sewage samples for polio virus
Gang of robbers busted, two held
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State's sagging economy needs uplift
Chandigarh, June 18
As the Akali-BJP II gets ready to announce its Budget in the assembly on June 20, one is looking at whether Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa will be able to do the tightrope walk, making do with the state's limited resources and at the same time honour the poll promises. Sops such as bicycles to girl students, laptops to students and employability allowance mentioned by the Akalis in their poll manifesto are estimated to cost the exchequer over Rs 3,000 crore per annum. One wonders from where this additional amount will come, especially when the Finance Minister's mandate is that people must not be burdened with additional taxes. It is learnt that the Finance Minister is unlikely to impose new taxes in the Budget. The emphasis will be to increase tax collection by checking tax evasion, widening the tax base (especially for VAT) and slashing administrative expenses. VAT will continue to be the biggest contributor to the state's exchequer with a contribution of Rs 15,000 crore this fiscal, up fom Rs 12,200 crore in 2011-12. The state is looking to the Centre for some relief in reducing the tax burden. It is hoping that the Centre will waive loans taken against small saving deposits (Rs 22,200 crore) or announce a moratorium of five years on repaying the loan. The biggest cause of concern for the government as it presents its Budget 2012-13 is the huge rise in its revenue deficit. As against a revenue deficit of Rs 3787.73 crore, predicted at the beginning of 2012-13 in the Budget estimates, the revenue deficit has gone up to Rs 6,000 crore, mainly because of the huge capital expenditure incurred just before the assembly elections were announced.This means though the state government succeeded in wooing the voters with sops and retained power, it led to bad economics, and the state will once again falter on the path laid by the 13th Finance Commission. Sources say the Budget this year may not be very different from the Budget proposals in the past five years. "Don't expect any changes. The Budget will remain a statement of accounts. The government will not impose new taxes. There is little direction for additional resource mobilisation and the fiscal and revenue deficit is expected to be high," said an official. However, allocations to key sectors like education and health are expected to go up, he added.
With the SAD-BJP government set to announce state’s budget on June 20, The Tribune talked to people from various walks of life regarding their expectations from the Budget. This is what they have to say: MUKTSAR
People have high hopes from the Budget as the ruling alliance had made big promises in its election manifesto. There is an immediate need to improve the power sector so that the farmers can get a minimum of eight hours of power supply at least during the sowing season. The alliance should also increase the pension amount under social schemes as was promised before the elections — Gurpal Singh, farmer of Khunde Halal village
The finance minister must allocate adequate funds to create the basic infrastructure all over the state. In the education sector, the government must set up more schools and colleges and should not only concentrate on distributing freebies like bicycles to girl students. Students from rural areas have to travel long distances to get higher education. Besides, the health sector, which is in a shambles, needs overhauling — Harkushaldeep Singh, M.Tech student
The industrialists are expecting some reduction in taxes. The government must offer incentives to attract investment in this sector. Concrete steps are required to revive the state's economy. Better roads and other infrastructure must be in place. Besides, norms for setting up of new industry must be relaxed — Davinder Rajdev, an industrialist
The government must reduce VAT on all essential commodities, including domestic LPG cylinders, petrol and diesel. The power tariff must also remain unchanged as the people are already hit due to high inflation. This is the time to fulfill the promises and not to backstab the people who gave their mandate to the SAD-BJP alliance — Mandeep Kaur, Housewife FARIDKOT
Following a sharp drop in the prices of cotton and given the low morale of growers, ginners and the state's textile industry, the government should lower CST and market fee on cotton. While Haryana and Rajasthan are levying 2% as CST and 1.60% as Market Fee on cotton, in Punjab, it is 4.4% and 2%, respectively. Ginners and textile mills thus prefer to buy cotton from Haryana and Rajasthan — Bhagwan Bansal, president, Cotton Ginners Association
While the government is giving heavy subsidies to the farmers on chemical fertilisers, there is no such incentive for those farmers who are into organic farming. At a time when agriculture is facing ecological challenges, the government must promote natural farming by extending some incentives — Amarjit Sharma, farmer
Health and education should be the top priority of any government. However, it appears that the Punjab government wants to get rid of these important sectors by allocating low budget and promoting private investment. The government must focus on improving these essential services by allocating more funds in the Budget — Simran Arora, teacher
In Punjab, the youth in rural and semi-rural area is increasingly going astray due to high prevalence of drugs. The government should allocate funds to set the things in corrective mode by involving the youth in progressive activities and rehabilitating the drug addicts — Dilpreet Singh, college student ‘Improve lot of govt schools’
— Shambu Singh, labourer
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Core areas neglected Jangveer Singh
Chandigarh, June 18 Eminent economist Ranjit Singh Ghuman said capital or development expenditure currently formed only 8 to 10 per cent of the total Budget. He said social services were also not being given the required importance with allocation to education reducing to 12 to 13 per cent in the last four to five Budgets from 18 per cent in the late eighties. Similarly, Dr Ghuman said allocation for the health sector was 3 to 3.75 per cent in the last two decades and that for agriculture less than 3 per cent. Speaking about his expectations from the Budget, Dr Ghuman said state's share in the energy sector had reduced from 12.36 per cent in 2007-08 to 9.34 per cent in 2010-11. He said energy was being generated in the private sector which would ultimately reduce the state's share to a minority in the coming years. He said this needed to be corrected. Dr Ghuman said besides increasing expenditure on health and education, the government must ensure Central schemes did not remain unutilised due to want of state's share. He also called for resource mobilisation and encouraging private investment. Professionals feel Central schemes are driving the health and education sectors in Punjab. Dr MS Randhawa of the Punjab Civil and Medical Services Association said the National Rural Health Mission was driving the health sector. He said government policies were geared towards encouraging costly treatment at the hands of private players. Former Assistant Director VK Goyal said there was lack of stress on planning and monitoring of expenditure. In case of the education sector, it was the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan that were playing a major role. They said the Education Department was yet to modernise its functioning for which special funds should be earmarked. Punjab might be an agrarian state but even agriculturists are dismayed that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been speaking about the need for diversification, but done nothing practical on this account. BKU (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said he did not expect the government to do anything for the farmers. He said if the government was serious about diversification, it should come out with a plan, give incentives to farmers to follow the plan and develop infrastructure for alternative crops.
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Sops will raise deficit to more than Rs 2,500 cr
These sops are now eating away into the state’s limited resources and have pushed the state off the fiscal correction path laid down by the 13th Finance Commission.The new sops, announced by the government just before the elections, will raise the revenue deficit by more than Rs 2,500 crore in 2011-12. Though all five Budgets presented by the Akali-BJP Government between 2007-2012 failed to give any direction to resource mobilisation, steps were taken to bring down the revenue as well as fiscal deficit. In the last year of its five-year tenure, the government ensured that the revenue deficit fell to 1.33 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), as against 1.80 per cent of GSDP laid out by the 13th Finance Commission. No Budget (presented between 2007-2011) sought to impose any fresh tax on the state. Though there was a move to make the collection of abiana ( tax collected for using canal water) more stringent in Budget 2009-10, it was scuttled because of its political ramifications.The farming community that forms a huge vote bank was not open to paying abiana. Big landlords were expected to pay abiana at the rate of Rs 150 per acre. The past five years saw a hike in the subsidy bill of the government. The power subsidy bill stands at Rs 4,500 crore per annum, with another Rs 500 crore going into social security pensions and the atta-dal scheme. The public debt has seen a steady rise too, from Rs 48,344 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 77,585 crore in 2011-12. It remains to be seen how the first- time Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa fares on these key economic parameters.
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Strain in alliance may surface during House session
Chandigarh, June 18 The BJP is reacting sharply to the manner in which it feels that the SAD has tried to draw political mileage by suggesting that its performance was better than that of the BJP in the latter's urban vote bank. Sukhbir Badal, who is abroad, is unlikely to attend the Budget Session. Discontent among the BJP leadership has been simmering, but most senior BJP leaders became vocal only during the last core committee meeting and were unanimous in opining that the SAD had used the government's official machinery to get favourable results in BJP bastion with a view to putting down its alliance partner. The core committee felt that the SAD misused official machinery in Amritsar, Patiala and Ludhiana. Rebels against BJP's candidates were encouraged to affect BJP's poll prospects, it was felt. Taking the resentment expressed by its leaders on Friday, it is certain that the assembly will witness the strain in the alliance.
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Cabinet approves Budget proposals
A spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s office said the Cabinet gave approval to carrying out a massive plantation drive under the name of “Greening Punjab Project” on vacant land in rural and urban areas for which a corpus named “Greening Punjab Fund” had been created. The effort was to make the state clean, green and pollution-free in a phased manner. Trees and plants of different species would be planted across the state and the programme funded through the corpus created with funds contributed by boards and corporations. The private and corporate sectors would also contribute to the scheme under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) clause of the Companies Act. The Cabinet passed a resolution expressing grief and anguish over the recent incident of “cow slaughter” in Joga village of Mansa. The Cabinet expressed satisfaction over the action initiated by the administration against the culprits. It assured the people of the ‘severest of the severe’ punishment to those involved directly or indirectly in the heinous crime. The Cabinet gave consent to setting up Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority to oversee implementation of traffic rules and mobility projects undertaken by various agencies in the Municipal Corporations besides ensuring an effective public transport system in the urban sector. The Cabinet approved the conversion of the Punjab Municipal (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012, Punjab Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance , 2012 and Punjab Municipal Fund (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012, into Bills for enactment in the coming Budget session of the assembly to legislate the abolition of octroi on petrol and diesel within the municipal limits. Likewise, it approved the draft of the Punjab Common Infrastructure (Regulation and Maintenance) Bill, 2012, for enactment in the Budget session. The Bill aims at creating of special purpose vehicles for maintenance of infrastructure at Focal Points. The Cabinet gave approval to renaming the Directorate, Sainik Welfare, Punjab, as Directorate, Defence Services Welfare, Punjab. It gave the nod to draft Bills for setting up of two private universities “Adesh University” at Bathinda by the Adesh Foundation, Muktsar, and “Chandigarh University” at Gharuan in SAS Nagar (Mohali) by the Chandigarh Educational Trust. Approval was given to remitting stamp duty on urban agriculture land on its transfer to the Class-I heirs during the lifetime of the owner as was done for residential and commercial property
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Rs 3,300 crore plan to set up 43 more ITIs
Chandigarh, June 18 Technical Education Minister Anil Joshi said the newly approved plan included setting up of 43 new ITIs in uncovered blocks at the cost of Rs 1200 crore. With these ITIs, the number of seats in ITIs would increase from 50,000 to four lakh. The new ITIs would focus on emerging technologies according to the changing needs of industry. The Minister said 2,500 skill development centres had been approved at a cost of Rs 1,800 crore. He said that he had approved a number of short-term courses under the public-private partnership mode. Emphasising the need for a proper followup of projects under various centrally sponsored schemes, Joshi said all officers would ensure that the utilisation certificate required for release of Central funds was issued without delay. He said a lot of funds had not been released for want of this certificate .
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Damdami Taksal wants Sikh as Amritsar Mayor
Amritsar, June 18 He said the Shiromani Akali Dal had seen a historic victory in Amritsar in the recent municipal elections, capturing 24 seats. He said this demand should not be seen as that of a particular organisation or a political group. “ It is the desire of the entire Sikh community that a Sikh owing allegiance to the SAD should be appointed Mayor of Amritsar". He urged the SAD leadership to consider this demand seriously.
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BJP to protest petrol price hike on June 22
Chandigarh, June 18 Punjab BJP president and MLA Ashwani Sharma said the petrol price hike of Rs 7.50 per litre was unprecedented and had led to financial anarchy in the country. He said after the successful Bharat Bandh, the BJP has decided to intensify the agitation in the form of 'Jail Bharo' on June 22 with the slogan of “Petrol ki kimata wapis lo, yaa phir jail do”. — TNS
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MPs’ panel to visit cancer-hit village
Bathinda June 18 Nachhattar Singh, member of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said the residents had decided to speak about the “injustice” meted out to them.
“Jajjal, Malkana and Laleana villages were the first to raise the issue of the alarming rise in the number of cancer cases about a decade ago. We don’t need just a hospital. The government should tell us what has led to the spread of the disease in the area, that has not even spared our children,” he said. The committee members would also visit Mehma Sarja village in Goniana where they will interact with a group of 15 big, marginal and small farmers on the impact of fertilisers and pesticides on agriculture. Shingara Singh Mann, BKU district (Ugraha), said he would talk of Punjab’s agricultural crisis. “The Punjab Government has neither given relief to cancer victims, nor families of debt-ridden farmers pushed to suicide,” he claimed. He said he would discuss excessive use of fertilisers, suicide by farmers and rehabilitation of families of suicide victims with the committee members. Kheti Virasat Mission’s executive director Umendra Dutt said the committee should hold public hearings to know of the devastation caused by pesticides. Dutt said Punjabis faced a serious threat from environmental toxicity. In an earlier study, scientists from PAU, Ludhiana, had said the rapid spread of cancer in Punjab was owing to arsenic in water that led to abnormal cell growth in human body.
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Farmers hold protest outside grid station
Patiala, June 18 Led by leaders of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Dakunda), they raised slogans against the state government and the Power Corporation. Dr Darshan Pal said the farmers were not getting power supply for eight hours as promised by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). All such claims by power corporation functionaries were a sham. He said if the corporation did not keep its word, the farmers would intensify their agitation and gherao all grid stations in the state. When contacted, PSPCL Director, Distribution, Arun Verma, said the power scenario had improved and farmers were indeed being provided power for eight hours daily. “Power supply is less only to some sub-stations that are overloaded. We had made this clear prior to the start of the paddy season”, he explained. Meanwhile, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Capt Amarinder Singh has said that claims by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that Punjab would soon be power-surplus had proved hollow. Flaying the government for being ill-prepared to deal with the power demand during the summer season, he said: “A six-hour power cut in the domestic sector, the two-day weekly off imposed on industry and erratic power supply to the farm sector spoke volumes of the poor performance of the power department, the portfolio which is with the CM.” Amarinder said immediately after the municipal elections on June 10, the power corporation had begun imposing power cuts in the entire state despite the government claim that there would be no power cuts this summer. On the uncertainty over some upcoming thermal plants, Amarinder said the CM should give a status report on all upcoming thermal plants during the assembly session, starting June 19.
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Enact law to regulate money-lending: Left
Chandigarh, June 18 “It is a well known fact that private money lenders have been charging exorbitant interest rates from farmers and landless labourers in the countryside. It is the most unregulated business prevailing in the state”, said Bhupinder Samber, general secretary of the Punjab Kisan Sabha, the farmers’ wing of the CPI. “There is an urgent need to lawfully regulate this money-lending system to check the growing incidence of suicide by farmers and labours in the state”, he added. A study conducted by Prof HS Shergill states that farmers in the state are under debt of Rs 36,000 crore taken from government institutions such as banks and private money lenders. While government institutions are governed by certain regulations, there is no such check on private money lenders in the state. “We have planned to hand over copies of the draft of the Punjab Agriculture Debt Relief Bill-2006 to MLAs, who will reach here to take part in the Budget session of the state Assembly”, said Samber. The draft of the bill was first prepared by Capt Amarinder Singh Government in 2006. However, it could not be made law because of opposition by certain groups within the party. Later, when the SAD-BJP combine came to power, it also dwelt on the issue but failed to clinch it. Left parties and the BKU faction headed by Pishora Singh Sidhupur have resolved to pursue the issue to its logical conclusion. In case, the law was not enacted, left parties and the BKU would launch an agitation in this regard. Draft bill has some good clauses such as that no private person can charge interest more than 10 per cent and it has to be a simple interest. A board to be constituted under the chairmanship of Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) to hear disputes with regard to the return of loan. The loan will be considered as fully paid to the creditor in case the borrowing party (farmer etc) has returned double or more amount to the creditor.
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Vigilance yet to get nod for probe
Patiala, June 18 Despite a Vigilance Bureau (VB) probe ordered by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal into the land scam, the VB is yet to confiscate important files pertaining to the case and summon guilty officers in the case to ascertain their role, if any. Sources confirmed that the records pertaining to the case were sent to the Chandigarh office of the Financial Commissioner, a couple of months ago. But, no probe agency with powers to register an FIR in the case where government land worth crores was allegedly transferred to private persons has checked official files related with the case, they said. “The files, which are still in the Patiala Deputy Commissioner’s office, are yet to be taken over by the VB,” they added. Patiala Vigilance Bureau SP Varinder Pal said, “Since there is no information pertaining to the case with their department, they are yet to initiate a probe.” “We can summon anyone or record statements only if there is an authority with us and till date there is none”, he told The Tribune. On May 8, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had ordered a Vigilance inquiry by DGP (Vigilance) Suresh Arora under his personal supervision into the land scam case where former Patiala Deputy Commissioner Vikas Garg and five other officials of the Revenue Department were suspended by the Punjab Government for alleged irregularities in the sale of government land in October 2011. The Chief Minister had ordered that the probe should be completed within a month, but nothing has happened and the VB is still to receive an official noting. Sources said the delay could affect the probe as the government officers involved in the case were getting ample time to set their house in order. “They can hamper, temper and even do anything to ensure a clean chit in this case where the government lost crores of rupees”, they added. A senior police officer said with two reports already submitted in the case, the government should have registered an FIR first and then initiated a probe. “By not doing so, the government is indirectly allowing the guilty to escape”, he stated. Following an earlier inquiry into the case, those suspended include former Patiala DC Vikas Garg, District Revenue Officer Rajbir Singh (under transfer), Tehsildar AS Thind, Naib Tehsildar GS Walia, Kanungo Priitpal Singh and Patwari Suresh Kumar. These officials would face departmental action. Since they have different appointing authorities, joint proceedings would be conducted in the case. Role of former Patiala Divisional Commissioner GS Grewal, who had already retired, would be ascertained by the Vigilance probe. Initially, irregularities in the sale of government land measuring about 6,000 square yards and valued at Rs 250 crore were pointed out by Patiala’s Divisional Commissioner SR Ladhar. The matter was then investigated by Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Navreet Singh Kang. Later, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had the matter reviewed and recommended a Vigilance probe.
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WHO to collect sewage samples for polio virus
Patiala, June 18 Dr Virinder Singh Mohi said, “Soon after the migratory pulse polio round, which is going on in the state, teams of the WHO will start collecting sewage samples that will be tested for the presence of wild polio virus.” “During a recent meeting in Patiala, we have been informed that they will be focusing on Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Mohali because these are the cities with maximum migratory population,” he said. Dr Vikal Goyal says after vaccination, polio virus is flushed out of the body but there are chances that the wild virus stays in the sewage. “Therefore, the sewage samples are taken to check presence of polio virus. Apart from testing the presence of wild polio virus, these samples are also an indication of sanitation and hygiene status of the area. If the sample is tested positive for the virus, there are chances that the disease can re-surface any time. Therefore, it is important that besides no reporting of clinical cases, the sewage samples also test negative” he added. A senior functionary in the Health and Family Welfare Department said though India had been struck off the endemic list of polio affected countries as the last case of polio was reported almost one-and-a-half-year ago -- Ruksana in West Bengal in January 2011. “We will still have to wait to complete three years before terming India a polio free nation. If there is no clinical reporting of polio and all sewage samples are tested negative in that period, our mission would be accomplished,” he added.
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Gang of robbers busted, two held
Patiala, June 18 Police said Rajkumar and Sandeep had been arrested, while three members of the gang were wanted in over a dozen cases of robberies lodged against them in many states. Brar said the police had recovered firearms, bullets and other weapons from their possession. “More raids are on to nab the absconding members of the gang”, Brar said.
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Punjab's sagging economy was the main issue during the state assembly elections held earlier this year with both the Congress and former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal blaming the SAD-BJP government of "lack of fiscal management" during its five-year tenure.
Protesting against erratic power supply to the farm sector when paddy sowing is on, agitated farmers staged a sit in outside the 66-KV grid station at
Pasiana, a few kilometres from the city. Led by leaders of the Bharti Kisan Union
(Ekta Dakunda), they raised slogans against the state government and the Power Corporation. 
Rajpura police has busted an inter-state gang of robbers belonging to the dreaded Bhatu community.
Addressing mediapersons, Rajpura (City) SHO Bikramjit Singh Brar stated that gang members Rajkumar alias
Kala, Sandeep Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Dalip, Jaipal and Raja Ram were planning to strike in
Rajpura. “We raided a place following a tip-off and arrested two members of the gang, while others managed to escape due to darkness”, he said.
Over the past five years, the state's debt burden has soared to a whopping Rs 77,585 crore. With the subsidy bill rising steadily and salaries and pensions alone constituting 74 per cent of the planned Budget, there has been no move to improve tax collection with the government depending solely on the increase in value added tax (VAT).
‘Provide 8-hr power supply to farmers’
‘Set up more schools, colleges’
‘Give incentives to boost industry’
‘Cut VAT on essential items’
‘Lower tax on cotton’
‘Promote organic farming’
‘More funds for health, education’
‘Rehabilitate drug addicts’
Labourers need welfare schemes. The government must announce a scheme aimed at increasing enrolment of poor children in schools. Most government schools lack basic infrastructure and face staff shortage. Such problems should be resolved.
Chandigarh, June 18
Chandigarh, June 18
