Govt to come out with white paper on debt: Captain Amarinder Singh

Tuesday, 25/04/2017

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New Delhi: Punjab is reeling under a debt of around Rs 2.5 lakh crore, much higher than the anticipated Rs 1.5 lakh crore, and this will come out in the white paper being produced by June ahead of the budget presentation, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said on Monday.

He said that the state was working out the farm debt waiver as promised earlier and the government is working out details as it intends to come out with a “meaningful” loan waiver unlike Uttar Pradesh, whose scheme he termed as a “mere gimmick”.

“One must understand the financial health of Punjab. We thought we were about 1.5 lakh crore in debt. We are coming out with a white paper which is being produced on the state’s finances and my guess is we are going to end up with Rs 2.5 lakh crore debt. There are a lot of hidden issues which will only come to light in the white paper. Instead of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, it is going to be Rs 2.50 lakh crore. Now you can imagine a state which is already bankrupt. Rs 26,000 crore is the revenue deficit alone and how do we function? These are the problems we are going to face financially,” he said.

Singh said the new Congress government will fulfil all its commitments made to the public before elections and are thinking of coming up with “out-of-box” schemes.

“We are trying to do out-of-box thinking and the Finance Minister and his team are working on it and are discussing,” he said.

He said the promises with regard to jobs in every household, smartphones to all youth and loan waiver for farmers are out of the budget and the government is committed to fulfil them.

The chief minister said the government is working on starting a project of employing three lakh youth in a year in the cab scheme by launching one lakh cabs, where three people will own a car.

Besides a scheme is planned to start custom ploughing with 25,000 tractors, each owned by three people, for ploughing of farms so that farmers do not have to buy tractors.

On the farm loan scheme, Singh said, “This UP scheme is a gimmick. We are looking at a much more comprehensive crop loan waiver.”

He said there are a total of Rs 31,000 crore worth of crop loans, of which Rs 18,000 crore is the capital sum and the rest is interest. Half this amount is of cooperative sector and the government has started negotiations in this regard, he said.

“We have started negotiations with commission agents and are trying to work out a good solution to the problem to end the woes of farmers,” he said, adding that the scheme would come out soon as farmer suicides in Punjab have not stopped.

The chief minister said a three-member team has been set up in this regard, which will come out with its report in 60 days time and detail out the plans of how to work out a farm loan waiver.

Singh said during his interactions with bank chiefs it has been found that women have proved as better entrepreneurs as they repay their loans early.

CM approves setting up of Anti-Terror Squad

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday approved the setting up of an Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), as part of the Intelligence Wing, to break the nexus between militants and gangsters in the state’s prisons.

The government is also mulling an effective law such as the Punjab Control of Organised Criminals Act (PCOCA) to deal with the terror spread by organised criminal gangs, an official spokesman said here on Monday.

These criminal gangs have been operating in the state for the past 5-7 years with strong political patronage, he said.

“The ATS would have the mandate to act both against terrorist/militant outfits and criminal gangs,” he said.

In addition, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, on a request from the chief minister, has already agreed, tentatively, to provide two CISF companies in exchange of the same number of IRB companies from Punjab to ensure security at the high-security/sensitive jails where hardcore terrorists and gangsters are lodged.

These additional companies will remain in the prisons for at least six months, the spokesman said.

Besides, the state government has also requested the judiciary to notify trial courts in jails to avoid frequent movement of members of top criminal gang who are being targeted to settle inter-gang feuds and rivalries, he said.

On the police crackdown on terrorists and gangsters launched across the state on the directives of the chief minister, the spokesman said since March 16, when the Amarinder Singh government took over, as many as 16 dreaded gangsters had been arrested.

Amarinder had issued strict directions to the police and intelligence agencies to come down heavily on all criminal gangs in the state, he said.

As of March 15, there were 22 organised criminal gangs operating in Punjab with 240 gang members, of which 137 gangsters were lodged in various jails of the state, the spokesman

said.

These criminal gangs, many of which are patronised by political leadership, have been involved in inter-gang rivalry killings, contract killings, extortion from real estate developers/builders, drug smugglers/traders, bookies/satta- hawala dealers/liquor contractors/singers, land-grabbing, kidnapping for ransom and other serious crimes, including drug/arms smuggling.