Prune police force, demands Dal Khalsa

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 18. The Dal Khalsa today called for cutting the bureaucrat “flab” and said the Punjab Government’s decision to have seven officers in the rank of Director General of Police would put further burden on the taxpayers in the state.

Dal Khalsa president HS Dhami and political affairs secretary Kanwarpal Singh claimed that the Chelliah Committee set up by the state government in the nineties had recommended drastic reduction in police and civil administration, which had proliferated under the garb of dealing with militancy in the state.

“The state government is running on borrowed money, a debt that is to be paid by the people. Rather than opting for fiscal prudence, the Badal government is squandering the people’s money to reward its loyalists in the police force. This very first decision of the Badal government is anti-people,” they said.

By having seven DGPs, the government had given the impression that “Punjab was a police state”, they said.

Taking a jibe at the SAD-led government for promoting three IPS officers as DGPs to accommodate their “blue-eyed boy Sumedh Singh Saini”, they alleged that the Badals had thrown all norms and ethics to the wind by appointing the “cop with tainted past” as the Punjab Police head.

The duo claimed the present government had superseded four officers to hand over the reins of the police force in Saini’s hands “only to pay back for his loyalty towards the Badals”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120319/punjab.htm#10

The Tribune – Panjab Finance Agenda 2012-17

Times are tough, time government got tough
After 5 years of struggling in dire straits, the SAD-BJP government has a fresh start
Unless it takes some hard decisions, the state will continue to be a dole economy.
The need is to stop giving people a false sense of being looked after, and charge where needed

Ruchika M. Khanna, Tribune News Service

Unpaid bills, salaries and arrears of state government employees; a huge debt burden of Rs 78,000 crore; and sops in the SAD poll manifesto that threaten to take away an additional Rs 10,000 crore each year. All this, from the empty coffers of Punjab.

This is what stares the re-elected SAD- BJP government in the face as it readies to once again take over the reins of the state.

However, perhaps, this time round, the alliance leadership seems to be conscious of how debt-stressed Punjab is. They have been quite vocal about the need for finding an effective Finance Minister for the state. After all, whosoever handles the portfolio, will be under tremendous pressure — not just to mobilise additional resources for the cash-strapped state, but also to steer it towards the path of fiscal consolidation and setting right the dismal account books.

Punjab is like an ill-managed household. It spends almost Rs 3,300 crore more than it earns in a year. Its debt is double its earnings, and yet it continues to dole out new sops. While many present employees have not receive their salaries, the unemployed are being offered an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month; free education for girls up to college level; enhanced widow pension; free laptops to students and Wi-Fi connectivity.

These promises made in the SAD manifesto with empty coffers will cost the state an additional Rs 10,000 crore per annum. And that too without a road map for increasing the total earnings.

As the critical exercise of forming the government kicks off, a debate is on among the general public on what immediate financial issues need to be addressed by the new government. There is anxiety over the impoverished exchequer burdened with unpaid bills of Rs 2,000 crore. With excise collections now reaching a plateau, how will the state manage its rising expenditure?

The huge debt liability, servicing of debt and the freebies announced will only increase the massive revenue deficit of Punjab, which is among the highest in the country. The salary and pension bill, along with debt servicing, will amount to more than 74 per cent of the state’s revenue receipts, exceeding the norm of 35 per cent laid by the Finance Commission.

Fiscal reform

Undoubtedly, the new government will have to start immediately on the course to fiscal reforms. Imposing certain new state taxes, ensuring better tax compliance by plugging evasion, and controlling the non-plan and administrative expenditure will be key. After all, Punjab cannot afford to miss the bus on reforms, and has to demonstrate fiscal resurgence.

Talking to a number of experts and economists, The Tribune found the goal for Punjab has to be curtailing its expenditure and improving its tax-to-Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) ratio. The ratio today is 6.5 per cent (and 9 per cent if you add the Central taxes), which is the lowest among states. Most states have a tax-GSDP ratio of 9.5 per cent. If not higher, the state will have to bring this ratio at least on a par with the other fast-growing states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

With the state having one of the highest per capita incomes, the tax-GSDP ratio, too, should be higher. By raising this ratio, the state could generate an additional 20 per cent in taxes. In order to raise this bar, the government should expand its house tax net, increase water and sewerage charges; impose re-registration of vehicles that are over 10 years old; besides ensuring that abiana (user charges for canal water) is collected.

Get rational

With a huge subsidy bill of Rs 5,000 crore — including Rs 4,600 crore of power subsidy alone — the new government will also have to relook at the concessions it has extended to various categories and rationalise the benefits.

Experts suggest that the SAD-BJP government in its second avatar should also ensure better tax compliance and stop VAT and excise evasion, which alone could add upwards of Rs 3,000 crore to the state’s kitty.

Local bodies

The new government also needs to make its urban local bodies economically self-sufficient, i.e., generate their own sources of revenue. This will free the 10 per cent of VAT collections, which is currently going to the civic bodies, for other development activities.

There is a need also to make the State Planning Board more effective, to ensure judicious expenditure by the government.

To read more :

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120319/punjab.htm#1

The Hindu – Government will study draft of resolution against Sri Lanka: Krishna

Chennai, 19 March 2012. With Dravidian parties mounting pressure on Centre to support a resolution in UNHRC against Sri Lanka for alleged war crimes, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has said the government will study the draft of the resolution and consult Tamil MPs before taking a call.

“The minister is concerned over human rights. Once draft of the resolution is made, India will study it and consult MPs and take a call,” official sources said.

“Krishna is giving importance to views of MPs from Tamil Nadu,” they said.

Parties in Tamil Nadu want the government to support the resolution.

AIADMK and DMK had disrupted proceedings in Parliament last week to press their demand for supporting U.S.-sponsored resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) based in Geneva.

The resolution against Sri Lanka moved by the U.S., France, and Norway is scheduled to be taken up on March 23 in the UNHRC meeting.

UPA’s key constituent DMK has also called a high-level committee meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue. The agenda at the meeting would be “India supporting the resolution on Sri Lankan army’s war crimes against Ealam Tamils.

Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee had told the House that “our traditional stand has been that we have never supported any country-specific resolution at the UN Human Rights Council“.

Noting that there were “several facets” involved, government sources had said that India was in touch with several countries, including Sri Lanka, and other interlocutors on the issue.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3011498.ece?homepage=true

Sara Cosemans gets award in Leuven

Sara Cosemans gets award from the Gülen Chair for intercultural studies in the ‘Hollands College’ in Leuven for her thesis on the Sikhs in Haspengouw

Turkish Musicians 

Sara adressing the ‘sangat’

Sara with big cheque, surrounded by professors and the sponsors of the Gülen Chair

Sara with Balwant Singh & Amarjit Kaur from Hasselt 

15 January, exhibition in Sint-Truiden

Rohnny Houwaer, the artist who lives near the Halmaal Gurdwara, had an exhibition in Sint-Truiden

To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/

More Belgium pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Mamata prevails, Trivedi goes

Tribune News Service & PTI

Kolkata/New Delhi, March 18. Dinesh Trivedi resigned today as Railway Minister ending his defiance and bringing to a close five-day drama after he incurred the wrath of Trinamool Congress for hiking passenger fares in the Railway Budget.

Trivedi, 61, spoke to the Trinamool chief and West Bengal chief minister on Sunday evening and assured her that he would be sending his resignation to the Prime Minister shortly. This was disclosed by Mamata Banerjee herself at Kolkata airport, just before she boarded a plane for New Delhi, where she has sought a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Banerjee told the media that Trivedi would continue to be a Trinamool MP. Her decision to convene a meeting of the Parliamentary Party on Monday at 2 pm sent alarm bells ringing in Delhi. Trinamool MPs privately confided that if Trivedi failed to resign before the Parliament session on Monday, the Parliamentary Party of Trinamool Congress would formally adopt a resolution to withdraw support from the UPA Government.

Once the game plan of Mamata became clear in New Delhi, Trivedi was hurriedly advised to speak to Mamata and resign from the Union Council of Ministers.

Dinesh Trivedi told the media in New Delhi that he decided to speak to Mamata Banerjee and end the prevailing ‘confusion’ over the party’s stand. Banerjee communicated to her the party’s decision that he should resign and as a ‘disciplined soldier’ of the party, he decided to fall in line.

It is not clear, however, whether Banerjee will be satisfied with just Tivedi’s resignation or whether she would demand a rollback. She has already taken the public position that she would not accept the passenger train fare hikes.

Trinamool spokesmen have gone on record to state that “anything that hurts the common man is not in the party’s DNA”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120319/main1.htm

Dawn – Overall food prices rose by 79pc in four years

Khaleeq Kiani   Islamabad, 19 March 2012. The cost of minimum food basket comprising basic items increased by 79 per cent during four years of the current government, adding to malnutrition and poverty, according to official findings.

“The food basket has shown a consistent increase since 2007 from Rs1000 to Rs1790 (79 per cent) based on retail prices of December 2011,” according to a biannual report on Change in Cost of Food Basket (July-December 2011).

The price of wheat has increased by 67 per cent to Rs30 per kg from Rs18 in 2007-08, while the prices of pulses rose by 71 per cent to Rs84 per kg. Sugar prices posted a massive increase of 147 per cent to Rs84 per cent in December 2011, followed by vegetable ghee (57 per cent) and meat (94 per cent).

The cost of 2,150 calories, needed to keep the body and soul together, increased from Rs960 to Rs1,790, more than 86 per cent between 2007-08 and 2011-12.

The report said the price of wheat, the major staple, registered an increase of 200 per cent during the 11-year period from 2001, adding by 20 per cent to the cost of monthly food basket.

The price of sugar during the period (2001-12) registered an increase of 200 per cent and its contribution to the monthly cost of food basket was six per cent. Prices of pulses increased by 134 per cent, a share of only two per cent in the food basket.

It said that vegetable ghee and edible oils were a principal source of energy contributing 13 per cent to the monthly food basket and 16 per cent share in the overall food intake while meat remained an important source of nutrition. Prices of ghee and edible oil increased by 200 per cent during the decade and that of meat by 300 per cent. Meat contributed to about 11 per cent in the monthly food cost.

The planning commission said that nutrition status was an important poverty parameter and impediment to human development. The government’s policy over the time has focused on achieving self-sufficiency in food production for sustained food availability.

“To meet part of the food supply from imports remains politically and economically unacceptable, however, is inevitably supported for sustenance of essential food supplies.”

As a result, the production of major food and food availability over time have increased both in absolute and per capita availability and also overall energy availability.

“However, the overall food availability alone does not conform to food insecurity,” the planning commission said, adding that food security objectives would require linking overall availability with effective consumption at household level.

It said the minimum food basket remained below availability, and the actual consumption even lower than the food basket.

While the overall supply of major food items was sustained average retail prices of a few essential items of the minimum food basket have demonstrated an overall increasing trend over the period.

Talking about monthly per capita cost during July-December 2011, the planning commission said the overall cost at national level registered a cumulative increase of three per cent during the first half of the current fiscal year, owing to three per cent increase in the cost of wheat and milk, four per cent in rice and meat and 13 per cent in vegetables. It said the overall food basket price had peaked at Rs1,910 between August and November 2011 before coming down to Rs1,790 in December.

It noted that generally the cost of food basket increased during July-November in both years (2011 and 2012) and decreased in December. From July to November, the increase in cost has been sharp with 23 per cent in 2010-11 compared to nine per cent during 2011-12. Likewise, the cost decrease has been six per cent in November to December 2011-12 compared to four per cent in the previous year.

An earlier planning commission report had said that “given the continued sharp increase in prices of staple, mainly wheat, vegetable ghee and sugar, during the second half of 2010, and follow up in the first half of 2011, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger is likely to have increased further”.

General estimates suggest an additional five per cent annual increase in the number of undernourished people over the national estimates of the proportion of the undernourished in 2009 to 2011. Much of this is attributed to increase in food prices.

“Therefore, estimated proportion of undernourished children will be around 50pc as of 2011.”

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/19/overall-food-prices-rose-by-79pc-in-four-years.html