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.
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