CM Parkash Singh Badal meets PM to discuss debt issues
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 10:18 by Aisha
After reviewing the financial condition of the state, the CM requested the PM to waive-off the complete debt of the state either for one time or reschedule the debt for next 30 years or decrease the high interest rate of loans.
Punjab under serious financial crisis
According to the chief minister, the state is under serious financial crisis due to huge debt and Pay Commission recommendations.
The total accumulated debt is worth Rs 65,000 crore. This is largely due to decade long militancy in the state. Also, the net borrowings in current fiscal year amounted to Rs 6,586 crore.
Nearly, Rs 5,700 crore is spent annually to repay the loan amount.
One of the State officials said, “It makes no fiscal sense for the Centre to keep pressing us under that burden.”
Channelization of river Ghaggar as National Project
Besides the financial crisis, Badal appealed Singh to channelize the river Ghaggar as a National Project in order to save Punjab and its neighboring states from the flood crisis.
Breaches in Ghaggar, few weeks back, led to huge chaos in the state and had sabotaged the land, houses and crops badly.
The total cost of Ghaggar project is speculated to be Rs 1,175 crore The project includes work like construction of embankments, other flood protection works and remodeling of cross drainage works across river Ghaggar in Punjab and Haryana.
Badal has also requested revision of current Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) from Rs 1,600 per acre limited to two hectares to Rs 10,000 per acre for the entire land holding.
