The two day Vichar Sammelan of Shiromani Akali Dal and Bhartiya Janata party today called for complete scrapping of the central sponsored schemes and advocated devolution of state’s share in central taxes directly to the state governments with freedom to decide their own developmental priorities.The Sammelan opened with a 90-minute presentation by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on the economy, development and future priorities for Punjab.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal presided over the convention . Senior leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Charanjit Singh Atwal, Madan Mohan Mittal, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Bikram Singh majithia, Anil Joshi , Jathedar Tota Singh, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Hira Singh Gabria , Rajidner Bhandari,Tikshan Sood, Sohan Singh Thandal were among the prominent speakers today. All the SAD-BJP ministers gave an account of the salient features of their departments.Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal’s Advisor on National Affairs and Media, Mr. Harcharan Bains, later briefed the press on the day’s proceedings.
A dominant view at the marathon five-hour inaugural session of the Sammelan favoured the formula for devolution of central funds to be based on the proportionate contribution of the concerned state to the central taxes, instead of the present norm in which population is made the basis for determining the share. This works heavily to the disadvantage of progressive, developed and high performing states like Punjab whose per capita contribution to central taxes is far in excess of the proportion of its numbers in the country’s overall population.
Speakers at the convention felt that only a genuinely federal structure in the country with more financial and administrative powers to the states could help the country and the states in achieving its targets of inclusive and speedy growth, with emphasis equally on big ticket-development projects and welfare and progress of the weaker sections of society.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal outlined the details of Punjab’s success story on the economic and development fronts, with the state exceeding the targets fixed for it by the planning commission in almost all key fiscal denominators. The state broke all national records in boosting its own revenues by nearly 400 per cent in just five years, something that had never been achieved by any state in the country. The fiscal debt has been reduced from above three per cent to just 1.33 %, against the national figure of 3.32 per cent. The states not only exceeded the target set for it by the panning commission – 5.9% - to record a growth rate of 7. 2 per cent but it left even states like Bihar well behind. The national growth rate during this period did not cross 5.0%. Te growth rate during the previous congress regime in the state was well below the national average and had plummeted to nearly four percent.
Badal quoted figures of the Government of India to show even the debt to GSDP ratio has been brought down from 48% during Congress regime to just 33 percent now. The story on other development fronts was no different with expenditure on health being more than four times of what was achieved by the Congress regime. In education too, the SAD-BJPfigure exceeded that of the Congress regime by nearly 300%.
The Deputy CM made a special mention of the government's drive against drug menace and said, "Our war on drugs has reached a decisive phase and we are determine to win this war." Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, who participated in the deliberations, thanked the people of Punjab for the unprecedented show of affection, trust and faith in the policies of the SAD-BJP alliance. “We have not lost a single election in Punjab in the past six years, winning two general assembly elections, Lok Sabha, corporation, municipal and Panchayat elections. We recorded thumping wins in SGPC and also in the DSGMC. And we did not merely win but actually swept these polls. This inceases our humility and sense of commitment to the people’s welfare.,” said Mr. Badal. Mr. Badal termed the two day sammelan as a useful and much needed detached and objective look at our own performance and the issues dear to the people. It will help us fine tune our approach even further, ” he said.