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Punjab CM threatens to move SC if Centre fails to release rural development funds by June-end
Rural development funds is the 3% cess levied by the state government on the Centre for the procurement of agricultural produce, which is to be mainly used for creation and maintenance of rural infrastructure in and outside the mandis
The Punjab legislative assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution, recommending that the state government approach the Centre for release of rural development funds (RDF) to the tune of ₹3,622.40 crore, which has been withheld since the past four procurement seasons.
RDF is the 3% cess levied by the state government on the Centre for the procurement of agricultural produce, which is to be mainly used for creation and maintenance of rural infrastructure in and outside the mandis.
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who concluded the discussion on the matter, asked the Centre to release the pending amount by June 30, failing which, the state would move the Supreme Court on July 1, seeking its intervention.
Initiating the discussion, agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that on the directions of the Centre, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had amended the Rural Development Fund Act last year by ascertaining the usage of the fund as mandated by the Centre and notified it on July 18, 2022, but even then, the release of fund is pending.
The accruals of two seasons each of rabi (wheat) and kharif (paddy) are pending. The previous government have taken loans by pledging the future accruals, which the government is paying back now.
In his remarks cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that Punjab has made the maximum contribution towards the nation’s food basket, and laid lives in the freedom struggle and later on the country’s borders but it was never given its dues. “We always have been discriminated against by the Centre,” he added.
According to AAP legislator Jagrup Singh Gill, “RDF is an important fund for the development of rural areas, and the Parliament has mandated for creating the fund and it can’t be stopped arbitrarily.”
“On assuming power, the state government amended the Rural Development Fund Act as suggested by the Centre’s ministry of food and public distribution, and still the fund was stopped. Centre creates hurdles in working of non-BJP governments and escalates their problems through their representative the governor,” said the CM.
“The role of Governor is to take up the state’s issues with the Centre, but he creates hurdles in the state’s functioning,” added the CM, conveying to the House that with ₹3,622 crore, the entire rural Punjab will get new roads and mandis will be rebuilt.
“What if we stop giving food grain from Punjab? How will they manage? But this would not happen. Punjab is large-hearted and we don’t get into the petty things,” said the CM.
The Centre asks us to come on a par with UP and Bihar in claiming taxes on food grain procurement, but this is not acceptable, announced the CM while speaking in the house.
Govt curtailing opposition MLAs’ rights, Dr Sukhi
Speaking on the debate, SAD’s Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi said that the AAP government in Punjab may say that nothing was done in past 70 years, but minister Meet Hayer has accepted that farmers and Punjab have done a lot for the nation in the past, demanding more time for legislators to speak in the House so as to raise people’s problems.
He suggested creating a discretionary fund for the MLAs. “You are demanding RDF from the Centre but strangulating MLAs of the opposition by not allowing them to take up the issues of their constituencies,” he said.
CM slams Congress
Slamming the Congress for running away from the debate on this important issue, the CM said they are harming the interests of the state by doing so, adding that Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa is running away from giving answers on vital issues. He said that the people of state must ask them why they had run away from the House when a resolution seeking release of RDF was being passed.
