Naxalism in Punjab a reality, says Badal

Punjab was known for Left minded political leaders but not left wing extremism, also called Naxalism. If state chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is to be believed, naxalism would be a reality soon in one of the most prosperous states of northern India, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Apr 30, 2013, 21:02:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Punjab was known for Left minded political leaders but not left wing extremism, also called Naxalism. If state chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is to be believed, naxalism would be a reality soon in one of the most prosperous states of northern India.

Falling agriculture income, rising agriculture debt and high farm investments were some of the reasons given by Badal for farmers egging revolt.

If nothing is done to deal with impending agrarian crises soon, there would be Naxalism in Punjab, Badal told the Planning Commission functionaries at the state’s annual plan meeting.

The commission approved state annual plan of Rs 16,125 crore for the current financial year, which is about 15% higher than the last financial year.

On poor agriculture produce management, he said around 60 lakh tonnes of wheat grains were being kept in stores in an unscientific manner and accused the railway ministry headed by Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal of not providing cheap transport facility for food grains.

He also called upon the Central government to declare minimum support price for less water intensive crops such as Maize, Soyabean and Basmiti Rice to help Punjab to cope with water stress, a view well taken by planning commission officials.

Badal was, however, at his political best at the meeting slamming the Centre for most of its policies. He claimed that world biggest job guarantee progamme -- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee --- has given birth to new type of corruption at the ground level.

Taking a dig at the Central government inclusive growth plank, he said, that even though the government was spending thousands of crore rupees for development poverty and unemployment was on the increase.

Blaming Centre’s policies and militancy for Punjab’s debts of around Rs 98,000 crore, the chief minister said the poor performance of the Central government was showing its impact on the state revenues.

Minister of state for planning Rajiv Shukla countered him by saying that it was the NDA government which had accorded special industrial status to Punjab’s neighbouring state of Himachal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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