CHANDIGARH: The Congress and the SAD-BJP alliance, who ruled Punjab after the militancy period, have blamed Rs 5,800 crore special term loan taken between 1984-85 and 1993-94 to fight militancy for bleeding the state exchequer.
The state finance department records reveal that the central government had waived off the principal amount of the term loan amounting to Rs 5,026 crore in 2006. But the state government had to bear the burden of Rs 2,694 crore as it had already repaid the principal amount of Rs 771 crore and the interest component of Rs 1,923 crore till then.
“We received a letter from the Centre in December 2006 as the remaining loan instalments were waived off under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. That is why in 2006-07, for the first time after 1984-85, we achieved a revenue surplus,” then chief secretary K R Lakhanpal told TOI. He added that in 2007, then Capt Amarinder Singh government had left a revenue surplus of nearly Rs 1,800 crore.
Parminder Singh Dhindsa, who was finance minister in the SAD-BJP regime later, said though then Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral had approved the waiver of the remaining instalments of the term loan in 1997, effectively it was implemented in later years.
“Though I had even taken up the issue in the pre-budget meeting with then Union finance minister in 2014 to compensate Punjab for the already paid principal and interest, no call has been taken by the central government till date,” said Dhindsa, MLA from Lehra and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) leader. He said Gujral had decided to waive off the term loan, accepting Punjab’s arguments that militancy was not only the state's problem but of the entire nation.
The Union finance ministry had even sent a communication to the Punjab government on July 24, 2000, which reads, “It has now been decided by the government of India not to effect recovery of further instalments of loan repayment and interest payment on the special term loan.”
Even after this, the central government took more time to give final relief to the state government in 2006. As per the finance department records, the total amount of special term loan instalments amounting to Rs 5,026 crore waived off by the central government include Rs 176 crore (1995-96), Rs 123 crore (1997-98), Rs 221 crore (1998-99), Rs 241 crore (1999-2000) and Rs 3,772 crore (2006-07). The central government also accepted recommendations of the 10th Finance Commission to waive off Rs 496 crore of the term loan.
Alibi of apologists
“Militancy period loan has been waived off in 2006. These are various apologists of the government who would not cease using these terms. How long would you continue to state Punjab being a border state and Punjab being a victim of militancy?,” says Lakhanpal, chairman of the 6th Punjab Finance Commission.
Lakhanpal, who superannuated as chief secretary of Punjab in 2007 and also served as finance secretary earlier in the governments headed by Capt Amarinder Singh as well as Parkash Singh Badal, says Punjab’s decline really started from the mid 1990s, when there was no terrorism. “One could argue that it was the lagged effect of terrorism but basically irrespective of the parties in power in the last 30 odd years, Punjab has suffered because of bad governance,” he adds.
The former chief secretary says that the entire world is going ahead with the mind boggling reforms in governance, but Punjab is the only state which hardly seems interested. “You have no business to deploy most of the resources you raise by taxing people on just paying salaries, pensions and loan interests,” he says.
Underlining that the growth and development does not come free as it needs investment, he says that one needs to take some hard decisions which respective governments have failed to take in Punjab. “And, you also have to deal with the political economy of Punjab,” he emphasised. Lakhanpal opined that “politics of grievance”, which might suit somebody's politics, would take the state nowhere and the solution to Punjab's problems lies within the state and not in Delhi.
