Tarun Chugh
Law and order situation in Punjab has completely collapsed. There is a serious sense of fear and panic among the people in the state. The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government is giving out fake figures of police actions against criminals amid rising hopelessness among the people. Punjab has seen three serious incidents of lootings in quick succession.
In one incident, Rs 8.5 crores were looted by criminals in Ludhiana on June 10 and Rs 10.5 lakh was looted in Amritsar a day after. This was followed by yet another killing and looting at the shop of a jeweller in Moga.
The prevailing situation in the state reflects poorly on the Punjab Police, which had played a commendable role in fighting militancy, but is now being used by the AAP government to cover up its failures on all fronts.
Prisons in Punjab have become the playground of criminals and sharpshooters. The writ of the law is hardly seen running in Punjab. This calls for urgent intervention from the stakeholders.
There are signs in Punjab showing that the AAP government has converted prisons into channel studios for the hardened criminals. Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has managed to give interviews to the media from the high security cells of a jail. The manner in which Lawrence Bishnoi has been able to give interviews from prisons reveals that the law and order is gasping for breath in Punjab. There is no denying that law and order situation in Punjab has completely collapsed in the past few months in the state.
One can easily make out that the prisoners have all the means of communications within their prison cells to run their cartels across the state. The business of extortion is flourishing in Punjab. Gangsters’ access to all facilities in prison cells to carry out criminal activities reveal that Bhagwant Mann, who as Chief Minister of Punjab has completed more than one year in the office, has not only failed, but he’s seen with bloodied nose as an administrator.
It needs no reiteration that Punjab is a state with an international border. Memories are still fresh that Pakistan waged a failed proxy war with India in Punjab by sponsoring terrorism in 1980s. It is also well documented by researchers and even investigative agencies that Pakistan continues to wage the proxy war with India in Punjab by exporting arms and drugs through drones and other means. At the same time, it needs no explanation that Pakistan is orchestrating an international conspiracy to radicalize the Punjabi diaspora with the Khalistani agenda with aim to seek revenge from India for the liberation of Bangladesh.
The background and perspective of Punjab must have been known to the AAP. Arvind Kejriwal, the national co-convenor of the AAP, has been a chief minister for quite a long time to have been familiar with the challenges of Punjab. Yet, Kejriwal allowed Mann to remain aloof from the day to day functioning of the state administration.
This is worrisome. Even after the sharp observations of the Supreme Court against officials who have been specifically named for the lapses in the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Punjab when Charanjeet Singh Channi was the chief minister, the Mann government sat over the recommendations for tough actions against the top officials. This was demoralizing for the policing, which is incumbent on strict compliance with the laid down standard operating procedure (SOP). The sense that the security of the prime minister could be compromised and none would be held accountable emboldened the armed gangsters and the hardened criminals.
Industrialists and businessmen dread phone calls. The business of extortion is gaining grounds with each passing day. This can also be seen from the fact that the Punjab-based industrialists are visiting states such as Uttar Pradesh in search of investment opportunities. The revenue collections of Punjab have also gone down. This suggests that the poor law and order situation in Punjab is also pushing the state economy down. This is the reason why Punjab has one of the highest unemployment in the country among the youth.
Punjab’s own tax revenue has decreased from 71.82 per cent from 2011-12 to 47.79 per cent in 2021-22. This shows a clear decline in the state’s ability to raise resources internally, while Punjab is now banking on transfer from Union Government, as well as debt. The declining mobilisation of the resources from within Punjab also reveals that the poor law and order situation now has telling effect on the state of the affairs of the economy.
Also, the Punjab economy is lagging behind states with better administrative records. While the state GDP growth in the current fiscal is pegged to grow at 9.5 per cent at the nominal rate, the same for Uttar Pradesh is projected at 19 per cent, while being 15 per cent for Assam. The declining revenue of the state government is also pushing Punjab further into debt trap.
* Effective Outstanding Debt to GSDP of Punjab has been estimated to be 46.81% for FY 2023-24
* Effective Outstanding Debt to GSDP of Punjab was estimated to be 45.23% for FY 2022-23
* Outstanding Debt of Punjab (Budget Estimates: 2023-2024): Rs 347542.39 Crore
* Debt paid in 2022-2023: Rs 30,046 crore
* Borrowing for 2022-2023(Budgeted): Rs 55,051 Crores
* Debt to be paid in 2023-2024: Rs 38,626 crore
* Borrowing for 2023-2024(Budgeted): Rs 94,410 Crores
Thus, it’s evident that Punjab is borrowing more to pay the heavy price for collapse of the law and order situation in the state.
(The author is national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party)
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