Punjab subsidised India’s food grains consumers by Rs. 1,23,904.84 Cr from 1997, centre must pay

 

Punjab subsidised India’s fiid grains consumers by Rs. 1,23,904.84 Cr from 1997, centre must pay

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh, July 30:

Free power to the tube wells in the farm sector in Punjab has cost the state government a whopping  Rs. 1,23,904.84 cr from 1997 till 2023 as per the report (TOI, July 29, 2024).

At another level, this is the amount by which Punjab tax payers have subsidised the consumers of food grains in India. About 80 per cent of this power is used to produce wheat and rice that is procured from the state by the centre for the central pool at what is known as the minimum support price. The contribution of Punjab to the central pool of food grains is the highest among all states in the country.

And this Minimum Support Price does not include this part of the cost that is born by the state government.

Why should Punjab subsidized the food grains that is exported to the rest of the country?

Invested in creation of infrastructure, this amount of money would have changed the face of Punjab and give a massive boost to its economy.

And the social media handles and even some Bharatiya Janata leaders has at times attacked the Punjab farmers as the Khalistanis!

This amount must be charged by the Punjab government from the Government of India.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann should take up this issue forcefully on priority with the centre.

The free power to run tube wells was for the first time was introduced in Punjab when Rajinder Kaur Bhattal became the chief minister for a few months before the February 1997 Assembly elections in Punjab swept by the Akali Dal-BJP alliance led by Parkash Singh Badal. The subsidy initially was for farmers owning upto 7.50 acres of land.

Fulfilling its poll promise, the Akali Dal-BJP alliance widened the scope by subsidizing all the farmers across the state, even those having multiple connections.

Now the medium and big farmers have even multiple connections.

The irony is that the Punjab government did not have that amount of money to spare. The period of Akali Dal-BJP alliance government from 1997-2002 led by Badal mobilised few additional resources.

The state has been resorting to borrowings over the years and its debt is now amongst the highest in the country.

The Congress government that followed in 2002 with Capt Amarinder Singh as the chief minister at one stage reversed this decision. However, he he failed to resist the pressure, not from the farmers as such, but from his own party, and reintroduced the scheme without any change. Despite this appeasement, the Congress lost in the February 2007 Assembly elections, making way for the Akali Dal-BJP alliance.

The subsidy continues.

The farm sector  and dairy farming are subsidized across the world and the countries like the USA have much higher subsidies as compared to India.

The issue here is not that of subsidy to the farm sector per se. It is the procedure that has to be different.

Food is the basic need of every living creature on earth.

Punjab contributes more than 30 per cent wheat and more than 20 per cent rice to the central pool.

The share of Punjab in contributing wheat to the central pool is the highest at 47.29 per cent of the total wheat procured from across the country till May 24 (TOI, May 25, 2024).

This wheat has been subsidized by the state government, and essentially by the tax payers in Punjab, by way of free power to run tube wells to produce this wheat.

This cost of power to run the  tube wells must be reimbursed to the state government by the centre.

This free power is just one cost in the production of the food grains.

The other costs by way of damage to ecology and environment is equally staggering.

With of the amount of water from being drawn by the tube wells  to irrigate paddy fields, Punjab is heading towards turning into desert. Intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have polluted the environment.

And above all, 70 per cent of the rivers from Punjab are already flowing to neghbouring Haryana and Rajasthan. It is altogether a different issue that the rhetoric by the political class all along has been that “not a drop” of water from these rivers would be allowed to flow out. People have been misled for years by the politicians on this issue.

Both the power subsidy and the environmental cost must be borne by the Government of India.

The issue is simple.

The foodgrains (Especially rice and wheat) that Government of India procures from Punjab is heavily susidised by the state government.

This subsidy must be reimbursed by the centre.

Alternatively, the farmers should be allowed to export the farm products to the central Asian markets via the Attari-Wagha border for direct access to these markets at market price. Presently, India trades with Pakistan via the sea ports including Mumbai.

This issue of food grain export via Attari-Wagha border too should be taken up by the Punjab government with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.