Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today stressed upon the dire need for a genuine federal structure in India with devolution of more powers to States even as he maintained the centre was usurping the rights and authority of the states in violation of the spirit and even the specific provisions of the Constitution and reducing them to the status of mere beggars.Touching the important aspects of center-state relations at the 11th Inter State Council meeting held today in New Delhi, the Deputy Chief Minister said cutting across party lines there was a widespread consensus that the trend towards centralization of authority was still continuing. He emphasised that States should be given much greater operational freedom to choose and finance development priorities of their people."The most dangerous exhibition of this tendency is seen in how the centre has been quietly shifting subjects from the State List to the Concurrent List and from the Concurrent to the Union List which amounts to constitutional rampage", he added.
Deputy CM suggested that for matters in 'concurrent lists', due weightage should be given to the opinion of the state government and on 'central list' matters, consultation of effected States should be taken. He suggested that the post of Governor should not be kept vacant for more than a month at a time.Shedding light on the crucial river waters issue, S. Badal said the Punjab had already suffered gross injustice in the matter of allocation of Ravi-Beas waters as the purposes of Beas Project were not kept in view while deciding the allocations. He argued that had the purpose of Beas Project been kept in view the entitlement of Haryana would not be more than 0.90 MAF.He said there has been tremendous decline in the ground water level in Punjab which was a direct consequence of inter-basin transfer of water to non-riparian states. The average ground water table in Punjab has declined from 7.34 m in 1973 to 15.33 m in 2015. S. Badal categorically said the Punjab is of the firm opinion that if allocations are made on the basis of environmental impact and accepted water laws, SYL canal would not be required, as not even a drop of water is spare with Punjab to run the SYL canal.
S. Badal said the Punjab has already suffered gross injustice in the matter of allocation of Ravi-Beas waters as the purposes of Beas Project were not kept in view while deciding the allocations. He lamented that till date the Centre has not taken any action for constitution of a new tribunal for reallocation of Ravi-Beas waters in view of Punjab's complaint filed as back as 2003.Citing another glaring example of injustice with Punjab in the meeting he elaborated that while reorganizing Punjab not only large Punjabi speaking area was given to Haryana, but also its capital city was not made part of the state. He said Punjab would be the only state in the world whose capital city is not part of the state.Badal said "We have been consistently demanding the inclusion of Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas in Punjab which have been kept out of the State. The injustice does not end here, even the decision of maintaining of 60:40 ratio in posting of officers to Chandigarh from Punjab and Haryana is being violated continuously". He emphasized that till Chandigarh to be transferred to Punjab, at least the sanctity of already decide ratio should be maintained in all departments/categories of employees.
The Deputy CM also informed that being a border state, Punjab is a primary gateway and falls on the highway of the drug route which starts from Afghanistan-Pakistan and culminates in other cities of India and various countries of the world. He said the Punjab has waged a national war against cross border smuggling of drugs. "Roughly 60 percent of all illicit drugs confiscated in India are seized in Punjab, highest number of arrests, in the country, of the drug peddlers have been made by the Punjab Police leading to highest conviction rate of more than 81% in drug related cases. However the state which is fighting the nation’s war on drugs is being termed as state of drug addicts by some for their personal interests", he added.
S. Badal, who also holds home portfolio, said the Punjab have contributed more but suffered a lot being situated on international border but it had been denied due consideration by the Centre as compared to other States who had suffered less.He argued that the formula and yardstick adopted for allocation of share in central funds collected from a particular state should be recast in a manner that encourages growth, development, performance and efficiency. He emphasised that Punjab needs special assistance for diversification of crops since the existing pattern has reached stagnation.
S. Badal stressed that the state government has adopted a zero tolerance policy to curb the menace of drugs and three-pronged policy for combating drug trafficking has been implemented whereas the anti-national and anti-Punjab forces to gain political mileage were trying to label every Punjabi as a drug addict. "Can the brave Punjabis who have fought with whole vigour for India’s independence and made 85% of the sacrifices made during the war of independence, made India food surplus and has fought every war that was waged on India’s sovereignty, is one of the best states and is now fighting India’s war against drugs be labelled as drug addicts," he questioned.S. Badal pleaded that deployment of BSF in border districts should be brought on par with the deployment of force in J&K sector atleast till state assembly elections scheduled for February-March 2017.Besides this, Punjab may be included as a category-A STATE for financial assistance at 90:10 Centre-State sharing basis on the pattern of J&K and eight North-Eastern States under the Modernization of State Police Forces Scheme.
He stressed that Punjab had long been at the forefront of battles for the nation and commits significant expenditure on security, the state should be given a special grant of Rs. 2,694 crore in lieu of its payment for the special term loan given to Punjab for incurring security related expenditure during the period of militancy. In addition to this he sought waiver of Rs 298 crore being demanded by the Ministry of Home Affairs on count of expenditure incurred on para military forces deployed during the same period in the state.Batting wholeheartedly for the royalty on river waters and foodgrains he demanded that State government should be compensated for the loss due to introduction of GST as the Punjab would be in a loss of approximately Rs 2000 crore on account of subsumation of purchase tax. Besides this, centrally sponsored schemes should not be ‘one size fits all’ but should be state specific and be 100% funded by the central government.Profusely thanking the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley for effecting recent increase in the devolution of funds from the center to the states from 32 percent to 42 percent, S. Badal demanded that this share should be atleast 50 percent to enable the states to achieve more economic prosperity.Focusing on the plight of the farmers of the border areas, he said the farmers tilling 20,500 acres of land often had to face problems in cultivating their land situated across the barbed wire fence. He said a permanent provision for compensation to these farmers to the tune of atleast Rs. 10,000/- per acre must be made for the hardships they were suffering.