Badal Sticks To His Guns On Free Power To Farmers

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal struck to his decision to supply water and power free of cost to farmers despite efforts by Planning Commission officials to persuade him to review the decision.

Badal was in New Delhi yesterday to discuss the states annual plan for 1997-98. The exercise has been delayed because of elections in the state and certain differences that cropped up between the commission and the newly elected Akali-BJP government. During the discussion, commission members and officials pointed out that the loss of Rs 250 crore on account of free power supply to farmers might prove to be a burden on the state exchequer.

 

But Badal and Punjab government officials accompanying him insisted that the state government had the capability to absorb the loss. Besides, they planned to cut down transmission and distribution losses which would be enough to take care of the additional burden, they said.

The announcement by Badal has resulted in similar demands being made in neighbouring Haryana to exempt farmers from paying electricity charges.

This, in turn, is putting pressure on the planning process. During the discussion, Planning Commission members pointed out that all state governments had agreed at the last meeting of the National Development Council that there was a need to revise power tariffs upwards and to end the system of subsidising state electricity boards as they were a severe drain on state resources.

The Planning Commission now plans to refer the issue to the next meeting of the NDC which is expected to take place in July. The next NDC will approve the ninth plan document which is being drafted on the basis of the ninth approach paper.

The paper has called for a revision of power tariff as a means to generate savings and finance the ninth plan.

The commission yesterday approved a plan size of Rs 2,100 crore for Punjab for 1997-98. This is a 13.08 per cent growth over the 1996-97 plan size of Rs 1,857 crore against which the actual expenditure was Rs 1,704 crore.

The commission deputy chairman Madhu Dandavate advised the state to go full stream on the construction of Ranjit Sagar dam and complete it within the scheduled date in June 1998. He assured the state that an amount of Rs 100 crore will be made available under the accelerated irrigation development programme.

The commission pointed out that farmers in the state were relatively better off which is why Punjab should lead the way in revising power tariff instead of supplying it free. Badal countered it saying that the farmers in his state need encouragement because 60 per cent of the national wheat production and 40 per cent of rice production comes from it.

He assured the commission that his government will raise revenue and cut down administrative costs to meet the burden.

He pointed out that sales tax collection has registered a increase of 7 per cent last year.