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State Mapping: Punjab battles drugs, eyes end to farm crisis

A loan waiver for farmers and STF's crackdown against drug smugglers stand out in the 8-month rule

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CM Amarinder Singh welcomes Navjot Kaur Sidhu and former Olympian Pargat Singh in Congress party during a news conference in New Delhi
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With its farmers pushed to the brink and its youth battling the scourge of drugs, Punjab had been caught in a downward spiral. As the pressing issues plaguing the state took centrestage in the Assembly elections, Congress was catapulted to a resounding victory.

Promising to build a debt-free and drug-free state, the party, led by scion of erstwhile Patiala royal family, Captain Amarinder Singh, vowed to 'redeem the honour of Punjab'. He announced that it would be his last electoral battle and people gave him the mandate. Singh clinched 77 seats in the 117-seat Assembly, and was elected the chief minister for the second time.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which emerged as the third front in the otherwise bipolar contest between two-arch rivals — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress — debuted with 20 seats. Akali Dal, whose patriarch former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal ruled the state for 10 years with alliance partner BJP, was pushed to third position with 18 seats.

The victory bolstered the Congress, which had been fighting for its revival on the national scale, and provided another much-needed boost seven months later, when it wrested the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, once a BJP bastion.

Within two days of taking reign, CM Captain Amarinder Singh put an end to VIP culture and scrapped the use of red beacons atop all government vehicles. He also barred the legislators from laying foundation stone of any project across the state, and banned foreign travels for two years.

Punjab also became the first state to announce 33 per cent reservation for women in jobs and 50 per cent reservation in urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions.

Farm loan waiver

Eight months into the formation of the new government, even as Opposition continued to target it over farmers' suicides, the government was quick to announce a loan waiver to make one-time settlement with banks. The notification was subsequently issued in October.

Singh announced to waive loans of up to Rs 2 lakh, of 8.75 lakh small and marginal farmers (with land upto 5 acres) and the entire debt of all suicide-hit families. Relief of Rs 2 lakh was announced for marginal farmers. As many as 10.25 lakh farmers would be benefitted under the scheme with the budget estimate of Rs 9,500 crore, finance minister Manpreet Badal announced.

With the crippled financial state of the government, however, the announcement gave little hope to farmers, who continued to commit suicide. As of March 31, Punjab's farmers owed nearly Rs 59,620 crore to co-operative, public, and private banks.

"Even if one farmer dies, it is a great tragedy. But, debt-waiver must be treated as a temporary relief measure. It does not eradicate the basic reasons behind farmer suicides. The need is to totally re-orient the agricultural policy and make small and marginal farmers viable," noted economist Dr Sucha Singh Gill said.

The term was marked by frequent standoffs with farmers, with the situation aggravating at the outset of paddy harvesting season, when farmers across the state declared that they would burn paddy stubble in protest, until the government announced compensation.

Drug menace

While farmers reeled under debts, the youth, struggling to find employment, was hooked to drugs.

Pointing out that 'chitta' (white powder) has killed thousands of Punjab's children, CM Singh promised to wipe out drugs from the state and put those involved in the trade behind bars within four weeks of him coming to power.

In its first Cabinet meeting, the government announced setting up of a Special Task Force (STF) to launch a crackdown on drug smugglers. Thus began a series of raids across all districts. Within four weeks, 485 drug traders and peddlers were arrested and booked under more than 387 NDPS cases. Also, 3.9 kg heroin was recovered.

As drug supply was temporarily snapped, de-addiction centers in government hospitals witnessed a surge in the number of addicts, and price of chitta in the market almost doubled.

Law and order

With its border with Pakistan and two terrorist attacks in the recent past, including on Gurdaspur and Pathankot air base, Punjab remains a sensitive state. The Maur blasts case in Bathinda a few days before the Assembly elections, in which seven people were killed, is yet to be solved.

The targetted killing of Right-wing Hindu leaders in the last two years has kept the state on the brink of communal tension, with CM Singh pointing at the involvement of external forces in disruption of the state's harmony.

As many as seven such murders have taken place in the last two years. The victims included leaders of RSS, Shiv Sena, followers of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, and a church pastor. Senior RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja was shot dead in Jalandhar in August, 2016. Exactly a year later, another RSS leader from Ludhiana, Ravinder Gosain, was shot dead outside his house.

Even as the cases went to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Punjab Police made a major breakthrough and busted the terror module behind the incidents. The assailants were arrested and role of Pakistan's ISI in destabilising the state was also exposed. In fact, the Punjab Police have busted eight such terror modules, funded by the foreign agencies, in the last eight months.

Indicating a growing nexus between gangsters and radicals, CM Singh highlighted that the ISI was always looking at radicalising the state's youth. "These killings were aimed at fanning communal disturbances to further ISI's anti-India gameplan," he had said.

The state also set an example during the Dera Sacha Sauda violence, when it completely controlled the law and order situation while neighbour Haryana simmered. No death was reported in Punjab while 41 people died in Haryana.

End to vendetta politics

Even as Congress was gunning for Badals-led Akali Dal in its election campaign and vowed to put them behind the bars for their alleged involvement in drug trade and transport mafia, the party came under attack from main opposition party — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — for adopting a soft stance against the Akali government.

Mincing no words, Captain Amarinder Singh declared in several election rallies that he would throw into jail all those responsible for the drug menace, and not sparing even the Badals and Majithia, if found guilty. Recently, however, he stated that the decision to indict them depended on the probe being conducted by the Central investigation agencies and he cannot take any action against him without evidence.

If Singh adopted the line of 'no vendetta' against the Akali Dal, Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu launched a tirade against the Akali leadership and declared a war on the cable mafia, including Badals-owned Fastway network. The former cricketer-turned-politician, Sidhu, who joined Congress after keeping the party on tenterhooks for several months, continued to lambast Badals for pushing the state-run transport system into losses of over Rs 350 crore and splurging funds to fulfill their dream projects.

AAP on downward spiral

Riddled by several controversies, the AAP has been struggling to hold a united front after the elections. Especially after dissenting voices emerged when Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi was removed from the post of party convener two months after the election to elevate MP Bhagwant Mann as party president, against the larger opinion of the party MLAs.

The party continues to struggle to keep the warring factions at bay, even as disenchantment against the Delhi leadership among the MLAs has been made evident in the recent past.

Even though the party led by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal made truce with its disgruntled MLAs, by appointing MLA Sukhpal Khaira as the Leader of Opposition following resignation of senior advocate H S Phoolka, the crisis seems to have only deepened as demands of his resignation emerged from within the party after he was summoned by court in a drug case.

CHALLENGES

  1. Drugs: As per a study conducted by PGI, Chandigarh, in 2015-2016, one in every six persons in Punjab was dependent on a substance. There were more than 22 lakh alcohol-dependent people and nearly 16 lakh tobacco-dependent people in the state. Nearly 1 in 10 reported facing medical problems due to substance use. The party faces an uphill task, especially when there have been no major arrests of drug lords even eight months after the elections.
     
  2. River water woes: With Punjab still locked in a river water dispute with neighbouring Haryana, the contentious issue of construction of 214 km Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, whose construction remains suspended since 1990, continues to keep the state on tenterhooks. Haryana has been demanding its share of river water, while Punjab has maintained that an estimated 10 lakh acres of southern Punjab was likely to go dry, if the SYL canal was constructed. The issue remains subjudice and the Supreme Court has passed an order in favour of Haryana, stating that the construction of canal should be executed.
     
  3. Farmer suicides: The announcement of loan waiver has failed to put an end to the spate of farmer suicides, even as protests by farmers’ organisations to demand implementation of the Swaminathan Report for higher MSP for crops continue.
     
  4. Crippled economy: The Punjab government continues to highlight that it inherited a wrecked economy from the former Akali-BJP government. With promises of debt-waiver and generation of jobs, however, the government is under high pressure to bolster its economy.
     
  5. Unemployment: The government is yet to fulfill its promise of providing job to one youth in every household. The job fairs organised recently have proved to be a damp squib. The governent has, however, announced that the job opportunities will increase with industrial investment in the state.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  1. End of VIP culture: The Punjab government put an end to VIP culture in the first Cabinet meeting. The government enforced a ban on the use of red beacons atop government vehicles, except emergency vehicles, and barred the legislators from laying foundation stones for projects across the state. It also dissuaded the legislators from using helicopters for official and foreign visits for at least two years.
     
  2. Reservation for women: Punjab was among the first states to announce 50 per cent reservation for women in urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions.
     
  3. Crackdown on drugs: Vowing to wipe out drugs within four weeks, Captain Amarinder set up a Special Task Force (STF) against drugs under ADGP Harpreet Siddhu, who has handled anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh. The STF made massive recoveries and arrested some cops for allegedly acting in connivance with drug dealers.
     
  4. Farm loan waiver: Though it is yet to be implemented, the government fulfilled its pre-poll promise after it issued a notification for farm loan waiver, to take over debts and make one-time settlements with banks to waive loans of up to Rs 2 lakh. The announcement was followed by loan waiver decisions by UP and Maharashtra.
     
  5. Free education for girls: The state announced provision of free education to girls in government schools from nursery till completion of PhD.
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