CHANDIGARH: Punjab polls have failed to enthuse non-resident Indiansdespite the attempts of all major political parties of the state to reach out to them ever since Manpreet Singh Badal addressed a sizeable gathering during his visit to Canada.
Just 54 NRIs have registered with the Election Commission so far. Political parties are, however, keen to woo the NRIs because they send considerable sums of money back home where they have extended families and continue to wield influence.
Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal unleashed the subsidy offensive when he announced free power to 15 lakh farmers, instead of the 10 lakh covered earlier, in the run-up to the polls. Now, the Congress party is hard pressed to match this economic recklessness with yet more of the same.
It is a measure of the political compulsions in the agrarian state that even former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal - who challenged his party's subsidy regime and subsequently formed his separate party when he was expelled from the Shiromani Akali Dal - has begun to justify subsidies with certain conditions.
Along with free power to farmers, the state provides subsidised grain to 16 lakh families below poverty line under the Atta Dal scheme.
Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has been promising that his party will enhance the subsidies. He has already announced restoration of free power to the Dalits and the poor to 200 units per family, an entitlement halved by the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government. "We cannot let the small farmer die," Singh has said, "The input costs have gone so high over the time. The Congress will continue with subsidies for small farmers."
The state's subsidy bill on account of free power alone is set to swell to 4,200 crore by the end of this fiscal. The power supply system is in a shambles and the industry is forced to rely on captive generation.
Though Punjab needs to shell out 8,000 crore just to service its debt, the government points takes pride in the debt's declining share of the state GDP.
The total outstanding debt by the end of March is expected to be 30.43%, a smaller share of the state GDP than in 1990-91, when the debt was 6,870 crore but 36.38% of the state GDP. In 2010-11, the debt was just a shade lower as percentage of state GDP, at 69,549 crore, or 30.40% of the state GDP.
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