Setback for crop diversification plan

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 28

The state government’s plan to give a major boost to crop diversification received a setback as the Centre has failed to announce any measure in this direction.

RS Ghuman, eminent economist, said: “The Budget has shown distant dreams and there is not much to boost the state’s agrarian economy”.

He said he did not see any initiative for the farm sector except for setting up a national agriculture market. He said Punjab was facing a major problem of marketing three major crops — wheat, paddy and cotton. “There will thus be no major benefit of the national market which will be dominated by private players. This will harm the interests of the farmers in the long run.

“States like Punjab have created a large network of roads and market infrastructure with revenue from markets set up by the Mandi Board. With the setting up of a national agriculture market, the state will lose revenue it earns on account of market fee, rural development fund and infrastructure fund,” Ghuman added.

No funds for schemes

With the Centre deciding not to fund 12 welfare schemes, the Punjab government will have to fund at least nine such schemes from its own kitty. These include e-governance, tourism infrastructure and backward region development.

The government will have to shell out Rs 600 crore to continue these schemes.

Rs50 cr for police reforms

The Centre has given Rs 50 crore for police modernisation and Rs 50 crore for the Hoshiarpur district backward region.