Punjab not being ignored on national resource front, says expert (Re-issue)

Radio Pakistan reports that Punjab is being deprived of national resources and funding by the Central Government have been firmly rebutted by experts and media persons here.

By Sunil Sharma

Chandigarh, Sept.4 : Radio Pakistan reports that Punjab is being deprived of national resources and funding by the Central Government have been firmly rebutted by experts and media persons here.

Reacting to the report that the Commission for Centre-State Relations in India had sought to make the Central Government more powerful and deny Punjab its due share of national resources, veteran journalist Surinder Khullar said such propaganda only exposed Islamabad's thought process, which was "quite negative and baseless".

Elaborating further, Khullar said that the job of allocating resources to states that formed a part of the Indian Union, was the preserve of the Planning Commission of India, and not that of the Central Government.

"When the Commission on Centre-State Relations was set-up, the main objective was to strengthen the states' economy and stature. It was not made to deprive the state off resources. In our country, the allocation of resources is done by the Planning Commission," said Khullar in an interaction with ANI.

The Planning Commission, he further added, was enjoined to essentially decide the amount of money to be spent on particular sector of development.Responding to another aspect of the propaganda coming out of Islamabad that upper caste Brahmin lobby in Punjab was using its muscle power to keep the socially underprivileged sections of the society, including the Dalits down, Khullar replied in the contrary."Again, it's a part of their negative thought process against India and Punjab. The fact is that in the last sixty years of independence, the strength, the power and privileges of Brahmin community have been phenomenally reduced," he said.

Khullar and other experts said that if Radio Pakistan's report on Punjab were to be seen as true, how was it possible for the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in the state to welcome the constitution of a Commission to review Center-State relations under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Justice M M Punchhi just a couple of days ago.

They also pointed to the fact that Punjab Cooperation Minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Captain Kanwaljit Singh was demanding a healthy national debate on the issue and seeking a consensus on the matter with other regional parties, and this was proof enough that the States and Centre were keen to iron out existing anomalies for a better future on the development and socio-political front.

The experts admitted that while development in some states is slow, it did not behove Radio Pakistan making sweeping statements about the internal affairs of India.

Acknowledging that development in the states is still slow, they said it was responsibility of states to undertake macro and micro development initiatives, and ensure that national resource distribution was facilitated in an equitable way.

Experts also rejected the view that Kashmiris were being financially and religiously repressed.

If that was the case, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad, would not have revealed last month that he had carried out a survey to find out what questions or problems were preoccupying the minds of Kashmiris.

He would not have revealed that a majority of Kashmiris are not as bothered about Pakistan-sponsored militancy as they are about the issue of removing corruption. He would not have revealed that his government has appointed additional district development commissioners to monitor the quality and pace of development works, and the fact that complaints have been reduced by 66 per cent from a high of over 90 percent.

The State Government of Jammu and Kashmir, they said, is committed to getting as much aid as was possible from the Centre to facilitate improvement in the lifestyles of locals.

ANI