Chandigarh: The Captain Amarinder led Congress Government completed six months of its tenure in Punjab on Saturday. The Captain rode back to power after a 10 years hiatus in elections earlier in the year and bears a huge burden of people’s expectation. The Congress party had made all kinds of promises to the electorate in the run up to the elections. But has it been able to deliver?
The Government has not been able to come good on its key promise of farm loan waiver. Though it has announced a loan waiver for small and marginal farmers, whereby loans up to Rs two lakhs were set off, it is still to usher a complete waiver as promised.
The T Haq Committee formed to look into ways and means to offer a one-time waiver across the board is still to submit its report and understandably so, for it has a Herculean task on hand. The Congress Government has inherited empty coffers and a debt burden of 1.25 lakh crores. Its finances are hanging by a thread as the major part of its income goes towards servicing the debt. So much so that it was unable to pay salaries in time to its 3.5 lakh employees in August due to delay in GST disbursement by the Center. Considering that the BJP-led Union Government is unlikely to offer any financial assistance, it will be interesting to see how the Punjab Government mobilizes resources to meet its commitment. It has been fixing the blame on the previous Akali-BJP government, which doubled the debt burden during its 10-yr rule with repeated borrowings.
The Congress had also promised to provide one job to each household in the state. This too remains largely on paper. While it does not have any money to invest in projects for employment-generation on its own, the proposed investments from private sector are still to materialize.
Owing to the lack of room for financial maneuver, the Government promise to provide free smart phones for youth remains stuck in the pipeline. On the same lines, it has failed to deliver in other areas such as providing ghee and tea with atta-dal, pensions for veterans and subsidized electricity for businesses.
Keeping aside the areas involving financial commitment, has the Government fulfilled its other promises? Largely the answer once again is a NO. Though it has taken steps to eradicate drugs from the state, it is still to take the kind of action required for a complete wipe out of the drugs ecosystem. Similarly, not much has been done to reduce corruption or to eradicate the various drug or mining mafias.
The government has been faced with allegations of wrongdoing in allotment of sand mining rights to aides of senior minister Rana Gurjit and lack of action to check the rising farmer suicides during its first six months in office.
A few of its decisions such as ban on truck unions and discouraging VIP culture by banning red-beacons on government cars are steps in the right direction, but these are few and far between.
The Amarinder Singh government has the majority in the Vidhan Sabha to effect a real change in the affairs of Punjab. Perhaps six months is too less a time to pass judgment on the performance of any government. But it is enough to assess whether a government is moving in the right direction. Sadly, the Amarinder Singh government so far has not given any concrete indications of its intent to restore Punjab to its glorious days.
The Captain romped home with an emphatic victory for his party in the state elections. Now it is time for him to strive hard to secure his legacy as a leader who made a difference.