Land-sale spree could boomerang on Badal

Inmates of a mental hospital in Amritsar or of an old-age shelter home for widows may not have much to do with Assembly elections in Punjab but the premises where they live certainly have been. These are among the properties that the Punjab government has pledged to various banks to secure loans to keep its populist schemes and election-year promises stay afloat.

Sources in the cash-strapped Punjab government say that several properties and land are either being sold or mortgaged to banks by the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance government led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Under the Badal government';s Optimum Utilization of Vacant Government Land (OUVGL) scheme, nearly Rs 4,700 crore ($700 million) is expected to be raised by selling 130 properties across Punjab by terming them "non-productive".

"The state government is virtually working by the day in matters of funds. Even giving salaries and pensions is a burden every month and a lot of jugglery and falling back on loans and selling properties are being resorted to," a senior bureaucrat told this correspondent.

With the ruling alliance already in election mode for the February-March 2017 assembly polls, the financial pressure on the Badal government is going to increase in the coming months with more populist schemes - like filling over 113,000 vacancies in the government - being announced.

In its latest move, the Badal government has offered to mortgage jail complexes, a mental hospital in Amritsar, home for widows (Gandhi Vanita Ashram) in Jalandhar, office and court complexes in districts and some urban enclaves in cities and towns.

The Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA), the state government';s agency entrusted with creating urban infrastructure, especially housing for people, has been mortgaging its properties, including its headquarters in Mohali, to raise money for the state government.

With farmers, employees and others breathing down the neck of the Badal government, things are not going to be easy for it as the state gets into the run-up for the assembly polls.

Punjab cabinet minister Sikander Singh Maluka defended the sale and mortgaging of properties. "The speed at which we are going in for development in Punjab, we need money. It has to be arranged from somewhere. We are sure that Punjab will soon be back on its feet and all the mortgaged properties will be released," Maluka said.

On the defensive over recent reports of financial mess and the mortgaging and selling spree, the Punjab government claimed that there was no financial crunch.

By Jaideep Sarin