March 28, 2017 by admin

Guv addresses Assembly, showcases financial bankruptcy of Punjab

Chandigarh, Showing Punjab a financially-collapsed economy with an abysmally-high revenue deficit of Rs 13,484 crore and the fiscal deficit of Rs 26,801 crore, Governor VP Singh Badnore on Tuesday said the government is committed to “restoring the financial position of the state and to once again put it on a high-growth trajectory”.
He was addressing the first session of the 15th Vidhan Sabha here.

Badnore, in his 35-minute speech, said, “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).
While the SAD MLAs arrived a little before the start of the session at 11 am and exchanged pleasantries with the Congress legislators, the AAP MLAs, along with Bains brothers of the Lok Insaaf Party, arrived last.
The major opposition had walked out of the House on Monday in protest against the Speaker not allowing debate on the Governor’s address.
Badnore said, “During the last five years (2012-2017) the projections/targets of the state excise and VAT revenue were never achieved. During the last 10 years, the total debt of the state had increased from Rs 48,344 crore to Rs 1,82,537 crore at the end of 2016-2017. The government had borrowed Rs 15,632 crore on behalf of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited 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 urban and rural missions were taking credit from banks.
“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.
“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. The government will continue to provide free power to farmers. It will establish an Agriculture Board (APB) responsible for contract farming in the state. The state will take all administrative and legal measures to defend the water rights of the state.
“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.”
Taking a dig at the earlier SAD-BJP government, Badnore said the state witnessed deterioration in the quality of governance with increased political governance through ‘halqa incharges’ in forcible occupation of government and private businesses, both in transport and mining. The government is committed to simplifying the processes to deliver services through a new Governance Reforms and Ethics Commission (GREC).
The Governor said 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. Fresh surveys will be carried out for providing the government endeavour of providing ‘ghar ghar mein naukri’.
The Governor also underlined a complete revamp of the police and change in attitude of law-enforcing agencies. Territorial jurisdiction of police stations will be rationalised and police will follow a schedule of fixed duty hours except in case of emergencies.
Badnore said the government would make all efforts to commission the Shahpur Kandi hydel project and Mukerian II hydel project to increase the generation capacity of the state from the current 13,960 MWs. The government proposes to assign increased role to the private sector in providing transport facilities to citizens. Clearly hinting at the ministers in the last government, he said “all illegal and ineligible permits will be cancelled”.
“The government will ensure 30 per cent reservation for SCs in allotment of houses, and residential and commercial plots. The government will also provide 30 per cent reservation to women in government jobs.”
The Governor forgot to say ‘the House is adjourned’ before walking out of the House after the national anthem when his speech concluded. The AAP leaders sat for five more minutes before leaving the House.