Live within your means

My compliments for the interesting and forthright editorial, “Ballooning state debt” (July 20). The Uttar Pradesh government’s move to waive farmers’ loans to the tune of Rs 36,000 crore was a disastrous step. One didn’t have to be an economist or an astrologer to predict that this would be followed by a spate of waivers in other states. Punjab and Maharashtra have followed suit and more states are perhaps waiting in the wings. 

Loan waiver is akin to one-time firefighting. It can’t solve the problems of farmers. It can’t improve their incomes. Several expert committee reports have prepared blueprints for improving incomes of farmers, but these are just collecting dust.

As states are used to living in heavy debt, there’s hardly any initiative to correct the situation. On the one hand, states seek greater autonomy and a truly federal structure, on the other hand they are yet to learn to live within their means. They are like children, who know their parents will support them irrespective of how unwisely they have frittered away their resources.

There is no point in states preparing Budgets if at the end of the year they run to Delhi with a begging bowl. The central government has acted wisely in the last three years and brought in a lot of fiscal discipline. All this will come to nought if it has to keep doling out money to states.

Krishan Kalra   Gurugram

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