Crop damage: Badal turns the tables on Capt

Surinder Awasthi / TNN / Aug 27, 2008, 02:25 IST

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Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal has accused his predecessor Amarinder Singh of seeking and settling for a meagre compensation for crop damage and collapse of houses during natural calamities.

Crop damage: Badal turns the tables on Capt

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has accused his predecessor Amarinder Singh of seeking and settling for a meagre compensation for crop damage and collapse of houses during natural calamities as was evident from his communication to the Union home ministry way back in August 2005.
Badal said that on coming to power last year, he revised the compensation rates for crop damages on account of natural calamities and his government has ended up paying far more than what is prescribed under the norms of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF).
Against the payment of Rs 1,400 per acre for crop damage of more than 75%, Punjab government reportedly disburses Rs 5,000 per acre, thus paying Rs 3,600 per acre extra from its own budget.
"It does not befit Congress leaders to speak on calamity relief as they had failed to compensate people during serious floods or draught during their tenure, that is 2002-07," said Badal, adding his government has disbursed a compensation of Rs 88.69 crore since March 2007, while the previous Congress government had paid only Rs 81.31 crore during its five-year tenure.

The senior bureaucrats in Punjab too were surprised at the Congress party's demand for a white paper on the non-utilization of the CRF by the state government and for a probe whether these funds have been utilized by the state government for purposes other than calamity.
The chief spokesman of the Congress party, Bir Devinder Singh had aired apprehensions of misutilization of a whopping Rs 1,646 crore CRF and questioned the justification of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir rushing to Delhi for relief, while the CRF in the state had remained under-utilized.

When contacted, finance secretary DS Kalha said the CRF to the tune of over Rs 1,650 is with the state government and already over Rs 50 crore has been released recently for providing relief and rehabilitation to the flood affected people.
"There is no question of its diversion or spending on any other project except on what it is prescribed for," he asserted. Since it has to be utilized only in accordance with the guidelines of the union home ministry, the funds remained un-utilized year after year.
The Union government contributes 75% and the state government 25% towards the CRF and its quantum for Punjab was pegged at Rs 806 crore for the period of 12th Finance Commission from 2005 to 2010.
"Besides the unspent CRF, which is deposited in the states' consolidated fund, the state government pays a whopping 13.5% interest on it. And out of Rs 1,650 crore, Rs 600 crore is just the interest component," revealed Kalha.
The unspent CRF include the accumulated funds of the Congress government tenure too. Interestingly during 2002 and 2004, Amrinder Singh's government had submitted detailed memorandums, demanding over Rs 5,000 crore each time, on account of natural calamities, yet the union government permitted it to spent less than Rs 50 crore out of CRF, though there was sufficient money in the CRF with the state then too.
"Though the money is at the disposal of the state, each penny has to be spent in accordance with the stringent norms fixed by the union home ministry," said financial commissioner revenue Romila Dubey.
Badal met Union home minister last weekend to persuade him to change the stringent norms of CRF or provide extra funds to compensate the flood affected people, explained Dubey adding that the state would release the entire accumulated fund if the Centre relax the norms of compensation.

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