Centre dithers on rural fund release

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 24

Amid the ongoing stand-off between the BJP-led Centre and protests against the new farm laws spearheaded mainly by farmer unions from Punjab, the Centre is apparently dilly-dallying over the release of funds to the state.

A two-member ministerial delegation comprising state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu today met Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal in Delhi. They, however, were disappointed at the minister giving them assurances that the matter was being examined by the Finance Department.

The Centre has held back Punjab’s Rural Development Fund (RDF) worth Rs 1,200 crore, which Punjab’s Congress government alleges is an arbitrary decision. The state will lose these funds if not released by December 31, when the current Cash Credit Limit allowed to purchase paddy expires.

Talking to The Tribune from Delhi, after the meeting ended late this evening, the ministers said they were just told that after the Legal Department had examined Punjab’s case, the Finance Department was examining it.

“I don’t understand why they are delaying it. There is no legal sanction for this arbitrary act. In the past six decades, this fund has never been stopped. There was no explanation for stopping the fund. Punjab had given its reply to the Centre after an objection was raised in October on how the money was used for the intended purpose of rural development,” Badal told The Tribune.

Food Minister Ashu said this was a statutory tax, and the Centre should release it. “But no concrete assurance has been given to us,” he rued.

A letter to hold back the RDF was sent to the state on October 23, where the Centre sought information on how the state was using it. The Centre had decided to hold back the fund till the issue was sorted out.

This was right in the midst of the farmers’ agitation against the farm laws and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had taken a strong objection to it.

Bq

Arbitrary move

“I don’t understand why they are delaying it. There is no legal sanction for this arbitrary act. In the past six decades, this fund has never been stopped. There was no explanation for stopping the fund,”

— Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal