CHANDIGARH,-- Expressing grave concern over the precarious financial situation in Punjab, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today demanded a white paper asking the state government whether the state was heading towards bankruptcy.
He pointed out, the frequent reports in the media, corroborated by the ground realities are a serious cause of concern and all indictors are pointing towards financial bankruptcy with state forced to take loan for day to day expenses even like the employees’ salaries which are pending to be paid since July.
Tewari said, it was for the first time in the history of Punjab that the state government had to mortgage its property with different banks to get Rs 1000 crore loan so that it could pay the salaries to its employees. “You don’t sell the family silver”, he remarked while referring to the process of mortgaging and sale of government properties for generating revenue to manage day to day affairs.
Asserting that the things were fast moving to a point where it looks no less than a financial emergency, the minister said, it is high time that the state government brings in a white paper about the financial status and tells the people of Punjab what it had thought and what it was going to do about the economy.
The Minister, who represents Ludhiana in the parliament also questioned the genuineness of the schemes and projects announced by the state government everyday worth thousands of crores. “It is surprising as how could the state government go on announcing the projects worth thousands of crores when it did not have a hundred thousand rupees to pay the monthly salary and pension to its employees and pensioners”, he remarked while referring to non payment of salaries and pensions for the month of July.
Tewari argued that the situation was so serious that the banks have now stopped lending money to the Punjab government. “This is the beginning of the bankruptcy when people stop trusting you about your ability to repay”, he pointed out while disclosing that this happened because the state had already exhausted its limit of borrowing money.
No state can survive on loans only. “After all you have to pay back these loans and time has come when the lenders have stopped paying you the loans that is leading to the current crisis”, he said and added that this is high time that the Punjab government instead of trying to go in denial mode and put up a brave face that economy was sound and robust that it did some soul searching lest it is too late to retrieve the situation.
The Minister asked, “as an MP from Punjab I ask the state government to bring out a white paper on the state of economy to address the growing concern of all the Punjabis”. He pointed out, the concern was more serious as the state debt had more than doubled during the last six years of the Akali rule and was likely to cross one lakh crores by the end of this fiscal from the state government’s own estimates.