White Paper or whitewash?

PUNJAB’S recent White Paper blames the previous Badal regime for burdening the state with a debt of Rs 29,919.96 crore and an interest liability of Rs 3,240 crore payable annually for the next 20 years. It pins the responsibility for the avoidable debt on “ineffective presentation” of Punjab’s case before the Centre. It is a surprise that Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who has made a thriving political career by alleging for years together Central discrimination with Punjab, should have meekly submitted to Central terms as the state had a strong case and suffered huge losses on account of food procurement year after year. 

Until 2003-04 the Centre used to make lumpsum payments for food procured. Thereafter it insisted on payments after CAG audits. Punjab’s figures were found inflated. The White Paper says Punjab did not submit audited accounts from 2004 to 2011. Capt Amarinder Singh was the Chief Minister from 2002 to 2007 and thereafter Mr Badal took over. The gap between Punjab’s claims and the audited accounts kept growing as the Centre also charged compound interest on the disputed amount. Instead of squaring up the gap, which on 31.10.2004 was Rs 8,161 crore, or settling the legacy issue with the Centre once for all, the two chief ministers used bank credit advanced for food procurement to clear past dues. The unsettled amount kept ballooning, touching Rs Rs 29,919.96 crore on 31.3.2017. What should have been paid right at the beginning was finally cleared with a Rs 31,000 crore fresh loan by the Akali-BJP government at the fag-end of its term. 

Opposition parties, including the Congress, and media had dubbed it a “food scam” after the RBI spoke of “missing grains” worth Rs 12,000 crore. Instead of fixing responsibility or calling for a detailed inquiry by an independent agency, the state White Paper mildly rebukes the Badal government and is silent on the possibility of corruption. This was sheer misgovernance and the issue is too serious to be laid to rest by a White Paper. Responsibility needs to be fixed at the political and official levels for causing a huge loss to the exchequer.